"Private thoughts"

Ahhhh, thank god I am finished that horrendous statistics paper! Now I can blog!
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      A couple of years ago I was driving three 6-year-old boys home from a playgroup that my colleague were and I were facilitating. One of the boys in the back was telling me how there was this girl at school who all the boys chase because they wanted her to be their "girlfriend." The boys started talking about how girls were "gross" and how they didn't understand why anyone would want a girlfriend, etc. You know, little boy stuff....

      One of the boys who was sitting in the front seat was not contributing to the conversation at all, and as a "Social Skills Facilitator" I took it upon myself to get him involved. I asked him:

"So what do you think about the whole "girlfriend" thing? Do you ever see this at your school?"

He answered very nonchalantly:

"I don't know, but sometimes when I'm around girls my penis feels like its in love....."

After I almost drove the car into the ditch, I replied with,

"Oh yeah, sometimes that happens, but that is more of a "private thought" that you want to keep inside your head"

Then I told him that if he had any questions about that it would be best to talk to his parents....

I guess thats what I get for trying to manipulate the situation.

Although, life might be easier if all guys were this honest.   

The Not-So-Fun Fair

    Last week I was working with one of my 11-year-old students. I asked him about his weekend.


 Me:  "How did your school fun fair go?"

Student:  "Oh, it was pretty good.... ALTHOUGH, a rather "ill" man came up to the parking lot and STOLE a licence plate off of one of the cars, and SPIT on another!" (Laughing, hand flapping).

Me: "Oh my, I guess that kind of took the fun out of it, hey?"

Student whispers to me: "Well, to be honest Kristen, it was the only exciting thing that happened there...."

A different point of view :)

     All of the children I work with are amazingly brilliant. Sometimes the general population doesn't get the pleasure of experiencing their brilliance because 1. they just don't understand them, 2. they don't TRY to understand them, and 3. do not put their diagnoses aside and treat them like human beings.

When working with a 7 year old student, he asked if he could smell my chap stick. He gave a huge whiff, and stated:

"I love that smell....its smells just like the escalator at the mall!"

I was a bit confused so I just said, "Oh yeah, can you explain more?"

Turns out the escalator is right by the smoothie stand :)

Another example:

    I was playing the guessing game with one of my students who was 5 years old at the time.

Me: "I'm thinking of something that is small, brown, and has fur all over it"

    I was trying to get him to guess his dog, without giving the obvious clue of "Animal"

Student: "I know, its a KIWI!!"

    I thought to myself, "holy crap! I would have never guessed a kiwi!" I was so amazed that I just said:

"You guessed it! A Kiwi!"

He was so proud of himself, and I got to say, I was pretty proud of him too.


Life lesson alert: Just because somebody has a different point of view on life, doesn't mean they are wrong, it just means that you have to take some perspective and try to understand their point of view. You might be surprised about what you learn about tolerance, acceptance, and yourself.

Ha ha ha ha