A heavy snowstorm closed the schools in one town.
When the children returned to school a few days later, one grade school teacher asked her students whether they had used the time away from school constructively.
“Welcome back, everyone,” the teacher said, “Before we begin today, I want to ask a question.”
They leaned in, curious.
“Did any of you use your snow days for something… constructive?” she asked. “Did you read? Write? Help your parents around the house?”
The room was quiet for a moment, filled with the rustle of coats and the creak of boots. Then a small hand rose in the back of the room.
It was Emma. “I did, Miss Hargrove,” she said, her voice clear and confident.
The teacher smiled warmly. “That’s lovely, Emma. And what did you do that was constructive?”
Emma’s reply came without hesitation, her voice laced with the kind of honesty only children possess.
“I just prayed for more snow.”
A teacher was helping one of her kindergarten students put his boots on.
He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and pushing the boots, she just didn’t want to go on. By the time she’d got the second boot on, she’d worked up a sweat.
That’s when the little boy said, ‘Mrs. Smith, they’re on the wrong feet.’
She looked, and sure enough, they were.
It wasn’t any easier getting them back off and re-put upon the correct feet. That’s when the little boy said, ‘These aren’t my boots. They’re my brother’s. My mom made me wear them.’
She bit her tongue and managed to keep her cool. But she mustered up the courage one more time to wrestle those boots on his feet again. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘Where are your mittens?’
‘I stuffed them in the toes of my boots.’
Summer vacation was over and young Jack returned to school.
Only two days later his teacher phoned his mother to tell her that Jack was misbehaving.
“Wait a minute,” mother said. “I had Jack with me for three months and I never called you once when he misbehaved.”
