KIDS

Saturday, September 26, 2009

(The following post is from a wonderful book, Close Encounters of the Third-grade Kind by Phillip Done. It is abbreviated because of space.)

Recently, someone asked me if kids today are different than the kids I taught when I first started. My answer is no. Kids are the same today as they always were. yes, they have Xboxes and PlayStati0ns and Game Boys and iPods and cell phones and computers now. But it's the gadgets that have changed, not the children. Kids are kids are kids.

Kids still get excited when you bring in a fossil or a magnet. They still get the giggles, and will giggle more when you tell them to stop giggling.

If a mom sends in milk with birthday cupcakes, one child will show you his milk mustache. Another will lap the milk up just like a kitty cat.

When throwing something away, they will always shoot a basket. When playing kickball, they will climb on the backstop while they're waiting for their turn. Someone's shoe will go flying when he kicks the ball.

As soon as they spot their teacher coming to pick them up in line, they will shout, "Here he comes!" When they see him walking across the blacktop during lunch recess, they will wave at him and shout his name like they haven't seen him in five years.

If you excuse them for lunch one second late, they will let you know. When they deliver something to the library, they will come back panting because they ran the whole way.

If you light a candle in science class, they will ask if they can blow it out. When you pass around a conch shell, they will always listen for the sea.

After they sing "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad," someone will always ask, "Who's Dinah?"

They can't talk to you without fiddling with something on your desk. Most can't talk to you without turning back and forth like the inside of a washing machine or standing on one leg like a flamingo.

Would I trade this life of giggles and stories and songs and runny noses and glitter and chairs that are too small to sit in? Not in a million years. Life with kids is such a rich one. And though there are days when I'd rather not deal with spilled paint and the missing books and sick betta fish, I'm sure that someday when I'm retired I will look back on all this and itch to clean out a backpack, pump up a ball, and hear a good knock-knock joke.

(There is so much more to this. Scroll down to my review of the book and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy.)