Short and Not So Sweet

Here's something for you folks with little time to waste: I used to teach third grade. I think I hated it from the first moment my hands wrapped themselves around a piece of chalk. I had a seating chart that I completed the first day of school and had to use it a whole year long because after every weekend or spring break, I could not for the life of me remember the names of my pupils.

Well, here comes the funny part. One morning I was taking turns teaching reading groups, but all of a sudden, the kid next to me pointed at Neil S. The chubby always-smiling eight-year-old no longer had a broad grin stretched from ear to ear. And finally I figured out why. Below his desk was a puddle of what looked like water. Ok? Given that I was a new teacher with limited experience, I wrapped my head around this problem and came up with a creative solution. Neil must be sitting under a leak in the ceiling. Of course he was. Four years of college and a 4.0 grade point convinced me of this.

Meanwhile the kids were laughing, and I was trying to get the janitor on the phone. When the custodian finally came, he started laughing too, but this time it was at me. The gist of his message: "Hey Lady, this kid wet his pants and you're too stupid to connect the dots."

It was only then that I saw the writing on the wall.It was embarrassing both for Neil and for me. Suffice it to say I never made that mistake again. I made worse ones. To be continued....Humor for All

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