Who Gets in Trouble?

Here’s a little something I call, “Who gets in trouble?”

As you know, I teach First Grade, which means I spend my days with 6-year olds.  Now, technically, they’re 5, 6, and 7, and in their presence I would never, ever generalize and call them all 6; nope, whenever I talk about their age in front of them, believe me I am very sure to use their exact age, down to the month and day!  (Remember when being 5½ was so very important?)

But since we’re all grown ups here, and since we long ago stopped caring about being 5½, let’s just keep it simple and call them all 6-year olds.  So…

Last week, after the last recess, the 6-year olds piled into the classroom and returned to their seats.  They settled themselves pretty quickly and quietly (it was a hot day and we were all drained by the heat).  We were about to begin our final lesson for the day when one of the 6-year olds raised his hand, pointed to the 6-year old in front of him, and said, “She kicked me in the nuts.” 

A little taken aback by the use of his frank language, but always one to capture a teachable moment when I can, I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, but just so I understand correctly, what you are telling me is that someone kicked you in your private parts?”

His response, “Yeah, the private parts called my nuts.  She kicked me there.”

So lucky readers, here’s my question:  Who gets in trouble?  The boy for saying nuts…twice?!  Or the girl for kicking him in the, um, nuts?

And you think teaching is easy…you try making these types of split-second, life altering decisions and then tell me how easy it is!