Gladly Would I Teach

A few years ago, Stephanie Barber, an innovative Special Education teacher at my school, created a unique program to help her students. She opened a coffee shop that is run by special-needs students. Each morning before school the students prepare drinks and food and then sell them to students and faculty members.  During first period the students also make deliveries to the classrooms of teachers who submit orders.

As a treat, each Friday I allow my students to order coffee and drinks from the Mountain-Top Cafe, and our order arrives about thirty minutes later. Because the cafe has been open for years, students throughout the school know about the cafe and the students who run it. Each Friday when our order arrives, we are usually greeted by two extremely vivacious students who distribute the drinks and collect the money.

The special-needs students are always happy and often greet my students by name. One of the sweet aspects of our Friday deliveries is the naivete of the students making the deliveries. Regardless of what we are doing in class, the students announce their arrival as if what they are doing is the most important thing we all will do all day. I often wonder if they might just be right.

It is impossible to keep from smiling as these students enter the room and talk to my students. They might walk in right when we are taking a quiz when the room is silent, but that doesn’t prohibit them from greeting everyone.  Last Friday when the students arrived, one little girl walked up to one of my AP students and stated loudly, “Hi, Lauren! How are you?” Lauren, who two minutes before had been totally engrossed in a vocabulary quiz, stopped what she was doing to talk to the student.

One student who frequently stops by to deliver coffee always has to talk to my students about the posters on my wall, thinking that the students in the class may not notice the posters.

As the students leave my classroom, many students call out to tell them good-bye or to thank them, and we then return to our work.

I often wonder who profits the most from the Mountain-Top Cafe. Does the program provide the most help to the special-needs students who learn to interact with the public, to make deliveries, and to count change?

Or, are the advanced students, students who at times are so stressed-out about academics, school work, college admission requirements, helped most be coming into contact with naive children who are always happy and so appreciative of the simple gestures of friendship that so many of us take for granted?

What a wonderful program!