Me? Distracted? Never!

I've sat down to write this blog for, oh, say, 4 days. I have so many funny new stories from my little monsters that I've been meaning to write down before I forget. Today I got home and have been determined to start the blog finally... then I got distracted. Again. I was looking for a good quote from "Everything I Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten" when I stumbled across the author's website. Robert Fulghum is now one of my new favorite people. He writes some hillarious but very insightful and intelligent stuff. Sounds like the kind of guy I'd like to sit and have coffee with. Read through the journal entries... there's some good stuff (I especially liked the flaming broom story).

Anyway, let's see if I can get in a few of the funny kid stories. Some days I can't believe I actually get paid to have such a great time. 5-7 year olds are a unique breed of human beings. Put 22 of them in the same room after two and a half weeks of being trapped in their houses by snow and the hillarious moments start rolling in...

#1: My kids walk in from winter break and the first thing they say is "GUESS WHAAAAAAT!!!!!! It SNOWED!!!" Really? It snowed? I hadn't noticed the 54 inches in my front yard...

#2: I have a kid in my class who is a bit of a trouble maker. He is sweet, in his own precious way, but he likes to teach the other kids bad words, touch their butts, inform the other kids about how one of the Broncos got shot, etc. He comes in Tuesday morning just sobbing. I tried to stop him on the way in the door but finally had to basically clothes-line the kid to get him to pay any attention to me. I asked him what was wrong and if he was ok. After a good solid 3 minutes of his sobbing, he gets out "I lost my backpack!" I look back, spin him around in front of the mirror so he could see what was on his back and say "this one?" He looks on his back and goes "Oh! Awesome!" and went about life like nothing had happened. Kindergarteners.

#3: We were talking about opposites in class. I was shocked at how great the kids were at generating the opposite of a word. We did it for a few minutes and I ran out of ideas. "Hmmm...What's the opposite of... hmmmmm..." One kid shouts out "BRONCOS!" So I let out a little laugh and said "well, what's the opposite of the Broncos?" A few kids said "Uhh, the Buffaloes?" When one kid shouts out "NO! The Raiders!" Hahaha. I gave him a big high five for that one. That's what I would've come up with! That kid is awesome.

#4: I've been ridiculously sick for the past 10 days. Sicker than I remember being in a very long time. I'm starting to get better, but I still have coughing attacks that last a few minutes. Yesterday I was telling the kids about what they were going to be doing during writing. Then the cough attack hit. My eyes were watering, face was red, the whole shabang. A few of my little ones were so worried they were near tears. Poor guys. Anyway, after 5 minutes of the death cough, I started back up telling them what they were going to do for writing. Again, started coughing. I laughed and said that my throat clearly didn't want them to do the activity. I made my throat talk and say "Nooo, don't make them do the paper!" -- they laughed and then one kid yelled out "Don't listen to it! Don't listen to your throat!" Haha. If we all had that kind of passion for learning...

Man they are cute. As much as they can drive me to the end of all the patience you can imagine one human being ever possessing, they crack me up.

The little monsters light up each day with their goofy outlook on the world. I've started to think that 5 year olds would make the greatest world leaders. Life is simple through their eyes. I read the story of Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King today -- despite incredible prejudice happening today against them and their families (and it can bring you to tears with what they pick up on -- "why did someone yell at me from a car telling me to go get a burrito?" -- people are morons)... anyway, despite what they go through, their little faces went so sad hearing the stories about segregation. The MLK book included that someone shot and killed him. To which I got the response "how could that happen? How could someone kill such a nice man? He didn't do anything wrong."

In teaching I get to see that all humans start out good. They start out hopeful, innocent, bright-eyed, sweet, and caring. I hate to think about what they go through before they become jaded adults. Fulghum is right, everything you need to know, you learn in kindergarten. If we could just use those skills as adults, the world would be a much better place. Hmmmm...