What ever happened to the days when boys and girls had cooties? I'm not talking about a bad family case of head lice. Rather, I'm talking about the days where as spring sprung and boys and girls started noticing each other, I could quickly curtail such blossoming love simply by reminding each sex that the other one had the cooties! The exchanges used to go like this:
Mrs. Ross I like Robby.
Me: Oh, well you know you have to stay away from boys, they have cooties.
Kid: They do? Gross!
Another teenage pregnancy averted. Thank you Mrs. Ross.
Today I learned that those days are long gone. How did I learn this? When I was greeted by the third grade broadcast news story from the future people magazine reporter of my class. It went like this:
Mrs. Ross K & N kissed at recess today.
Me: Um I'm sure you misunderstood there wasn't any kissing.
Reporter: No, there was kissing! We all saw.
Me: Saw, no you must be mistaken!
So I decide to go to the source. I went to the girl and asked her, was there kissing at recess? She does a full on confession and then goes on to tell me that the other girls were pressuring her, but she didn't mind because "K" is her boyfriend. Boyfriend? WTF!
Yikes! I had to have the whole, kissing isn't an appropriate school activity, peer pressure is a bad thing, and do I need to call your mother talk with her. Good times. I wasn't expecting to ever have to have that conversation with one of my students! Ever! I teach 3rd grade. That was more of a conversation I expected to have with my niece or nephew someday. But not while they were in elementary school!
I would give anything for a discussion about why it's not ok to call someone a "Cootie Queen" Oh how I miss those days!
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