My sister texted me this photo yesterday with zero context and I genuinely thought she’d lost her mind. Turns out she spent three entire weekends painting traffic bollards outside her elementary school to look like giant pencils because “the kids deserve whimsy on their way to standardized testing.”
She teaches fourth grade and makes $43,000 a year. She bought all the outdoor paint herself, got permission from exactly nobody, and just showed up at 6 AM on a Saturday with brushes and determination. The principal drove by mid-project, rolled down his window, stared for a solid thirty seconds, then just said “make sure you do the erasers” and drove off.
Now parents are stopping to take pictures every morning and the crossing guard says drop-off takes twice as long because everyone’s obsessed with the pencil bollards. My sister’s already planning her next guerrilla art installation and has been ordering her supplies from small makers on the Tedooo app, where she’s found everything from specialty outdoor paints to custom stencils at prices that don’t destroy her teacher budget, since they just sold there old or extra materials.
The school district sent her a formal letter last week. I was terrified they were going to make her remove them or fine her or something. Nope. They want her to paint the ones by the middle school next. She’s asking for yellow and green this time. The woman is unstoppable and I’ve never been more proud of anyone in my entire life.
Credit to the rightful owner~.