Sometimes teachers overhear some of the strangest comments. It’s just a little past lunchtime, and I already have three doozies for today:
Scenario #1:
“I think I broke my nipple.” (1st grade boy) The child was sitting across the table from me. So it wasn’t really an “overheard” comment. He was commenting for the entire reading group. I figured that I SURELY hadn’t heard correctly, so I HAD to ask, “You broke your what?”Â
“My NIPPLE!” he clarified as he took his fingers and pinched his shirt over his left nipple to demonstrate what he was talking about. The child next to him followed suit with both sides of his shirt to make sure I understood what he was talking about. I briefly wondered what on earth someone would think if they walked into my classroom and saw children touching their nipples. However, once the boys saw that I understood, they stopped. The first boy continued, “When I leaned over the table, I banged it against the chair.”
“Oh, okay. Well hope it feels all right now,” I said. We continued with our reading lesson. Maybe 30 seconds from beginning to end of scenario.
Scenario #2
“I didn’t really fart.” (2nd grade boy) I was walking past a second grade class that was lined up in the hall returning to class from the cafeteria.  Figuring that he probably HAD really farted or he wouldn’t have felt a need to say he hadn’t, I kept on walking.
Sphere: Related ContentScenario #3 - Same 2nd grade boy as the previous scenario - along with a classmate - in the hall about 20 minutes later. “See I can do it!” The other boy replied, “I can’t.” The first boy stuck out his tongue and curled it up from the sides. The other child just stuck out his tongue. He couldn’t curl his. I thought about stopping and telling them that the ability to curl one’s tongue like that is a genetic trait, but then when I started thinking about it, I wasn’t sure that was right. So once again, I kept on walking. I’ll have to look that up.
February 26th, 2007 (3 weeks ago) at 2:39 pm
Some info on tongue rolling - this has been the topic of an ongoing conversation between my brother and I, as I can tongue roll and he can’t. As we were taught at school that this was genetically controlled, and that the tongue-rolling gene was recessive, we were completely confused as to why my brother couldn’t do it. We had all but come to the conclusion that he was a genetic mutant (which he quite liked, as I think he saw himself as some kind of X-man), when my dad intervened and sent me a link which explains that it’s all about expression (or penetrance, as some geneticists call it). The way the gene is expressed is dependent on all the other factors which can have an effect on them. Hope this clears it up a bit!
TMS: Thanks, Amy! I knew that information was out there somewhere!
February 26th, 2007 (3 weeks ago) at 5:53 pm
Hilarious! There’s never a dull minute in an elementary school, is there!?
February 26th, 2007 (3 weeks ago) at 8:05 pm
This is so funny. Just this afternoon some boys were on my front porch - some of my son’s playmates - just outside of the window near my desk. I heard some disgusting farting reference - and I couldn’t resist saying “ew!” and one little guy looked sheepishly in the window - and said, “Did you hear that?” Maybe next time I’ll learn from you and just ignore it. It was just a knee-jerk response. Why do they LOVE this stuff so much?
February 27th, 2007 (3 weeks ago) at 4:40 am
Good morning. Funny posts. I love these children’s stories. I’ve having a lot of fun reading blogs this morning. Have a great day.
February 28th, 2007 (3 weeks ago) at 9:35 am
December 25th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Not so good as before.