Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teacher Tales by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen

Author:Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen [Canfield, Jack & Hansen, Mark Victor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Naughty Kid

Children are a great comfort in your old age—

and they help you reach it faster, too.

~Lionel Kauffman

After the first few days in a new classroom, especially if it is in a new school, your child is likely to come home and claim that he or she doesn’t know the names of any other students.

“You can’t remember even one friend’s name,” you’ll say, desperate for all the details. But your child’s lips are sealed. Only after relentless prodding will your child finally confess: “Well, there is this one kid….”

That “one kid,” the only student whose name your son or daughter knows, is guaranteed to be the naughty kid.

Every class has a naughty kid. Other children quickly learn the naughty kid’s name because they hear it called out by the teacher—with various undertones of anger and frustration—over and over again. Beware any child whose name is the first one that your son or daughter learns.

But what if your child is the naughty kid? How will you know? Your first clue might be if your son or daughter says there isn’t a naughty student in the class. Remember, there is always a naughty kid.

ME (speaking to my five-year-old son, who just started kindergarten):

“Owen, did you learn any friends’ names today?”

OWEN: “No, Mom.”

ME: “Not even the naughty kid’s name? Your older brother always learned the naughty kid’s name on the first day.”

OWEN: “We don’t have a naughty kid in our class.”

ME: “No naughty kid? That’s impossible. Every class has a naughty kid.”

OWEN: “Not my class.”

ME: “Well that’s good. But you don’t know anyone’s name? You didn’t hear the teacher saying someone’s name over and over again?”

OWEN: “Nope.”

The second clue that your child is the naughty one in his class: Other parents know your child’s name.

ME (speaking to the mother of someone in Owen’s class): “I’m sorry, what is your daughter’s name? I’m still trying to match parents to children.”

ANOTHER PARENT: “You’re Owen’s mom, right?”

ME: “Yes.”

ANOTHER PARENT: “We hear a lot about Owen.”

The third and final clue that your child is the naughty one in class: He or she seems to always have a new seat.

ME: “Owen, what was your favorite part of the week?”

OWEN: “That I’m sitting at my friend’s table again.”

ME: “You’ve switched tables already? It’s only the second week of school.”

OWEN: “I switch tables every day, Mom. Each time I get in trouble, the teacher finds me a new seat.”

I was shocked when I finally put it all together. I didn’t want my child—my Owen—to be “that kid.” I didn’t want him to be the naughty one. When I talked to my husband, Dustin, about it, he chuckled and said, “Owen has come a long way. Do you remember when he wouldn’t talk at all? Do you remember how you worried that he would always be shy?”

Dustin is right. Just two years ago, our Owen, who has always been in the third-percentile for weight, was a scrawny four-year-old boy who couldn’t keep even size 2T pants on his hips. He seldom talked and he cried every time I left him at preschool.

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