Chalk dust

 

Dusty Blues

When I was in school, we used chalkboards. But a sporadic outbreak of kids allergic to chalk dust emerged during my upper elementary years. Maybe the lawsuits from sneezing children’s parents led to the invention of whiteboards. My teachers just made them sit in the back. I miss chalkboards though: the screech of white against green, the dusty swipe of the eraser. I remember the powder sticking to my sweaty palms as I stood in front of the class unsure of the math problem above my head.

Whiteboards just don’t generate the same classroom atmosphere. There is never the ear-piercing screech of calcium sulfate, only an awkward squeak when the marker is running low.

Who even needs a whiteboard anymore? Slap it on a PowerPoint and project it onto the pull-down screen. No more texting while the teacher’s back is turned as he/she writes out a particularly detailed diagram concerning the history of cardboard. A single click brings up a plethora of notes a student cannot dream of copying down before the next slide. 

Gone are the days of passing notes as you wait for the notes to be written out. Goodbye sunlight filtering through the chalk dust as you sleepily follow the teacher erasing the last math problem. No more chain sneezing. But what I will miss most is the attention-grabbing shriek that could snap every drowsy head up from an afternoon nap.

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