These lockers had been sealed shut and unused for 15 years at a junior high school in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Image via PCHS-NJROTC/Wikimedia Commons.
But one day, some teachers had some radical ideas for the lockers' destiny — literary ideas!
The teachers at Biloxi Junior High decided to paint the lockers as books.
Photo via Biloxi Junior High Facebook.
Once they started, they knew they were onto something. So they shared their idea on the Biloxi Junior High Facebook page to see if anyone wanted to join them in painting book upon book on the remaining unused lockers.
The response was phenomenal and word spread — all the way to local anchor Trang Pham-Bui of channel WLOX 13 in Biloxi, Mississippi. Intrigued, she took a trip to Biloxi Junior High to see what was going on.
What she found was even more amazing than the Facebook photo showed: mural after mural of hand-selected book titles for the students.
Old drab lockers that didn't even function as lockers anymore — they'd been sealed shut for security reasons — are now the "Avenue of Literature," an awesome ode to learning and reading and a hugely awesome symbol of just how much love teachers have to give.
Photo via WLOX.
From WLOX:
"We thought well, wow, we can really make this hallway look good, and we can make the lockers look like book spines, but then it became much more than just a decoration process," said teacher Elizabeth Williams.
Teachers everywhere often do really cool things to try to fill the budget gaps to make sure kids have a wonderful experience, and Biloxi Junior High is no different.
They even convinced a local charity called Biloxi First to accept their request for $600 for supplies to began painting. And to the credit of Biloxi Jr. High, the school gave the teachers the freedom to do their thing!
"We want students to come back to school in August and walk on the hallway and be absolutely amazed with what we've done and be curious. We want that to be the driving spark for reading in our classrooms," said Elizabeth Williams
Just look at the result.
There's the "Twilight" series, natch:
Photo via Biloxi Public Schools Facebook.
And the classic combo of worldview shifters that is "Animal Farm," "Pride and Prejudice," and "The Bell Jar," as well as classic hard-to-reads "Gulliver's Travels," "Moby-Dick," and "The Scarlet Letter":
Photo via Biloxi Public Schools Facebook.
Do I spy the John Green tearjerker "The Fault in Our Stars"? As well as a student or two volunteering because teachers and students are awesome?
Photo via Biloxi Public Schools Facebook.
Yep.
Teacher Elizabeth Williams describes the teachers' motivations: "Seeing it in person is a completely different experience, and that's what we're hoping for the students. We're hoping the students come and they become completely immersed in a collection that we feel is the best of the best of every genre."
What an awesome show of care from teachers. In the summertime, when the only reasons they have to care is the kindness in their hearts and the love they have for their students and community spurring them on, this small group of teachers transformed a drab hallway into a celebration of reading.
It's a true reminder to each student that there are people who care for them.
Teachers are the best!