I was assigned the middle school route this year. The previous driver has driven this route for over a decade. She told me that I would need to stay on top of discipline. “All that puberty in one bus can make things difficult.” I was really worried about taking over this route. I had heard many stories about it, none of them good.

Luckily for me the previous driver was strict. The kids had been well trained. At each stop the kids are supposed to be twelve feet off the road waiting in a line. They aren’t supposed to move toward the bus until I open the door and indicate they can approach and load. Guess what? This is exactly what happened. At each stop these pubescent middle schoolers stood staring at me until I gave permission. The kids on my previous route did pretty good with this, but not like her kids. Her kids are now my kids and I appreciate her hard work. I promise not to let things slip.

My previous route had, at worst, a moderate load of kids. The middle school route can barely be contained in the bus. When all are riding, at least half the seats have three kids in them. The rest have two kids. The seats with two kids are eighth graders, so they are full anyway. A third eighth grader in a seat means only half a cheek on the seat. Seeing this big of a crowd worried me. They have to ride for thirteen miles on a highway with no shoulder to get to school and then the same on the way back home in the afternoon. They looked uncomfortable. It seemed to me it would be hard for them to control themselves. It turns out that although they aren’t little angels, they are reasonably well behaved. I was surprised at this. I still stay on them for leaning out in the aisle or turning backwards in their seats. Gotta keep up the discipline.

I put all the fifth graders in the front of the bus. They are packed tight, three to a seat. I could feel them eyeing me over. They would say or do things to test me and see what my limits were. They didn’t do anything outrageous, but I knew what they were up to. Then I surprised them. One of the boys in the seat just behind mine and across the aisle turned up some music on his phone. It was a popular song about “gonna ride a horse until I can’t ride no more. . . .” It had a nice beat. Almost instantly all the kids started singing along. They sang with gusto. I rather enjoyed it. That’s the part that caught them by surprise. From their reaction I figure the previous bus driver would have put an end to that immediately.

I wasn’t trying to win points with the kids. It’s just that the music was good and it was fun hearing them sing so happily. They did “Baby Shark” next with all the movements. Then they did a few others. I asked them to turn the music down as we approached a stop. I only asked once but they remembered at each stop from then on. Remarkable.

About the third morning I stopped at one of my stops and opened the door. A fifth grader sitting in the front seat called out to his friend as he climbed the steps. “Welcome to the party bus!” Other bus drivers know that “party bus” isn’t really a good reputation to have. In fact the first thing I envisioned was an alcohol fueled sorority or fraternity party at a college.

I looked up in my mirror to examine what was going on on my bus. What I saw was a large number of middle schoolers packed tight, enduring their thirteen mile ride to school. Finally I realized that this boy was referring to the singing. Or perhaps he was referring to the freedom to sing on the bus. Whatever it was, it made him and the others feel happy. If being the “party bus” means my kids are happy, then bring it on.

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