Fourth graders pitch in to clean RWE cafeteria

Ralph Witters Elementary students Mason Reese, Chase Herring, and William Coale for years have had one desire when it comes to lunch time in the school’s cafeteria: to help custodian Ann Peterson clean up.

Although it may sound strange that fourth graders are eagerly willing to clean up after themselves, Peterson said that Reese, Herring and Coale have been asking for years to pitch in during cleanup.

“Since last year they’ve been trying to help me, and I wouldn’t let them,” Peterson said. “Then [Herring and Reese] approached me again this year and I said okay… They’re fourth graders now, and I figured at fourth grade they should be old enough and mature enough [to help],” she added.

When Reese and Herring were asked why they wanted to help, Reese said he started eating alone and saw Peterson cleaning. “I thought it would be,” he started to say, when Herring added, “helpful.”

The idea took off when fellow students saw Reese helping clean after lunch one day. “I just started and a couple of my friends started,” Reese said.

“Whoever can help gets to help, but there can only be eight,” Herring said. It was clear for the activity in the room that cleaning was an enviable position. Boys and girls from the fourth grade were wiping tables, sweeping floors, removing black scuff marks from the floor, mopping and taking out the trash.

“Me and Mason usually take out the trash,” Herring said. It became clear that Herring and Reese were the ringleaders of the operations when Herring offered, “Sometimes me and Mason stay a little bit longer.” “Yeah,” Mason added, “we stay a little bit longer. We just wait until our teachers come,” he said.

When asked if her job had become easier after the fourth graders volunteered to help, Peterson said, “I enjoy seeing it. I kind of think that maybe what I’ve tried to teach them over the years has rubbed off enough. Like, as Mason said, ‘it’s not fair to you, we’re making the mess.’ I told him, ‘it’s my job’.”

“I appreciate the guys helping,” she said. “They kind of have the basics down. I think just from watching me.”

Before the gang of fourth graders volunteered to help, Peterson was in charge of every job by herself. Now, she still cleans alongside the kids, but largely oversees the hectic and noisy operation.

“It’s a little chaotic sometimes,” Reese admitted. But even if it is chaotic, Peterson is encouraging the fourth grade students an important lesson: responsibility. Everyone can agree that is a crucial part of any wholesome education.