Gary Gould — Managing Editor
I’ve written here before about going to visit my son’s school and what that experience can be like. I recently went to Sam’s school and joined his second grade class as a birthday treat — he was turning 8 — and nothing says “Happy Birthday” like dad bringing him a Happy Meal and hanging around for recess.
I love hearing what little kids have to say. Teenagers not so much, they have too much to say about a lot of things they know nothing about, but little kids are always a joy. This visit provided me with plenty to laugh about.
During lunch one of Sam’s second grade classmates showed me a bottle of Propel he was drinking. It is essentially a combination of Gatorade and vitamin water — good for you — but he was convinced it was a power drink. I didn’t tell him otherwise, but asked if it would give him the energy he needed to get through the rest of the day.
“No,” he told me, with a very serious look. “That would be coffee.”
A class of second-graders drinking coffee — now that’s a nightmare I wish upon no one.
At recess I was approached by a little girl with a handful of dandelions who explained to me the real significance of the yellow weed/flowers.
“We used these to teach my little brother how to pee,” she said. “We would just have him aim at the dandelions (in the toilet bowl I assume) and it worked. And then the dandelions would die.”
Thank you for saving that story until after lunch, young lady.
Also at recess I had a little boy come up and ask me a series of questions which never seemed to end:
“Do you drive a car?”
“Do you drive a truck?”
“Do you drive a van?”
“Do you have a 4-wheeler?”
“Do you have a boat?”
“Do you have animals?”
“Dogs? Any cats?”
“Do you have a TV?”
“Do you have a job?”
I finally had to walk away — I’m pretty sure no matter how many questions I answered, there would be a dozen more to follow.
Sam then wanted me to join in a game of basketball. A boy who was playing stopped everyone and very seriously informed all of us: “OK, the rules are there are no rules, except you can’t push because I have on short sleeves and I will fall and scrape my elbows.”
He later shook my hand and thanked me for joining them. Safety-minded and manners. A rolemodel for all elementary kids, indeed.
In all it was a fun visit and reaffirmed the fact there is no time in a child’s life like those years they spend in elementary school when they can still be kids, but you can watch them slowly developing into the adult they will someday be.
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