Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Low Point

Let’s hope this is the low point of the week. So. I’m doing solo spots with a 1st grade class. Which is sort of horrible to start with, honestly. I mean, it’s really hard for them the first time; they don't yet know how to be still and quiet. So it's just generally not the best time for me. I don't get to journal at all myself. But we get through it, and we’re at the sharing time at the end. One little girl has drawn one of those Queen Anne’s Lace caterpillars and has the caterpillar to share with the whole group. She want to pass it around from kid to kid, but we explain to her that this is hard for the caterpillar, maybe she should walk around with it for all to see. I show her how to hold out her hand and walk around. She starts, going really slow so all can see. She gets to about the 6th kid, who apparently has not been paying attention at all… and he thinks she’s holding out her hand for a high 5. So he gives her one. Smashing the caterpillar to mush right there on her palm. Oh, my god. So sad. I mean, I know it’s just a QAL caterpillar and they're everywhere, but that girl was crushed. Crying, the whole bit. It was not pretty.

So it can only go up from here, right?

1 comment:

  1. Hopefully a month-and-a-half is enough distance that you can see the grim humor now in this incident. As a fellow teacher, I can't help but smile at this story. It gives me, to borrow a term from Tim O'Brien, a "truth-goose."

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