594. Norks and Noogly

When a child tells a teacher, “You’re the best teacher in the world,” or says, “You’re the best teacher I’ve ever had,” that appreciation, though appreciated, is usually quickly transformed in the teacher’s mind. The child hasn’t known very many teachers, has had even fewer, and it’s very possible that the child will soon meet…

A typical strategem for adults who want children to do certain things they’d rather not do is to remind children of something better that awaits them if they just finish doing the less pleasant thing: “There’s a great dessert waiting for you, and you can have it as soon as you finish eating your vegetables.”…

Many children, after a full day at school, come home to one parent. For some, there’s another parent who lives there, too, but maybe that parent won’t be home until much later. For others, the other parent lives somewhere else, but is still involved. And for still others, there is no other parent. Of course,…

I like to agree with people I like, and some of my favorite people believe that full inclusion of people with special needs in the regular classroom is the way to go. The problem is, some others of my favorite people say no, it isn’t. I’ve been a crusader for full inclusion – not as…

When I first started teaching elementary school, two children in my class were quite sure that they wanted to be paleontologists when they grew up. They’re grown up now, and I doubt whether either one of them is a paleontologist. Maybe, but probably not. People tend to change their minds a lot. When I was…

Once, a representative of the phone company was asking me some routine questions. One of them was what kind of work I did. Another was whether my wife worked. At the time, we had two children, both under four years old. I knew what the representative meant, but I could not bring myself to give…