Monday, September 24, 2007

"If you were the president..."

My day, in a nutshell, has been more than interesting. I don't have the time or energy right now to type all of it, but I'll give you this lunch story.

Before that, however, I'd like to say just for the record that my famous kid we often refer to as J here on this blog spent MOST of his day sticking out his tongue and spitting--at nothing.

Kids said, "J is making noise." My standard reply: "Honey, you know he makes lots of noises."

"Okay."



At our school, our precious first graders each have to learn their own individual lunch number. It's like a PIN number for kiddos. Only they don't get to pick the number to make it easier like grownups (you all know your PIN number is your birth year! Just kidding). Let me tell you, in our school, the beginning of the year is CRAZY with trying to teach these kids their lunch numbers. It's a big, hairy deal. We spend weeks writing lunch numbers on cards, hands, tags. We spend much time practicing typing on a pretend copy of a keyboard. It's still hard hard hard.



We'll call the star of this story D.

She looks over at me today at lunch as says, "Mrs. Overman, what would you do if you were the president?"

I think for a minute...then, "Well, I guess I'd get more money for schools so kids could learn better."

D thinks. Sits. Spins the cogs in her brain. Says, "If I were the president, I'd make sure kids didn't have to learn lunch numbers to eat at school every day. I'd get up there and tell them how hard it was to learn my lunch number when I was a kid just to get food at lunch and I'd tell them they'd never have to do that again!"

Ever think about what stresses kids out? Here it is!

3 comments:

Ruth Ayres said...

wow . . . what insight into their worlds. funny stories -- i'm in awe that you recognize these little stories as important enough to record. :)

Sarah Amick said...

You know during a couple of weeks when kiddos at the state level are expected to be more mature than their years, I am glad I read your post. Sometimes it's hard to remember that these kiddos are just babies. Thank you for reminding me of that again.

Deanna said...

So sweet! This gave me a smile today!!! :)