Humorous Memories of an Early Childhood Educator

"One of the virtues of being very young is that  you don't

let the facts get in the way of your imagination."
~Sam Levenson

Years ago, I was picking up a friend’s child from her Kindergarten class. The first thing that hit me was how the children were addressed by the teacher…but kids are still kids wherever you go.
“You WILL color the whole paper….” The teacher, Ms. Thompson, went on to say.
I wasn’t sure what activity they were doing but Ms. Thompson seemed mighty stern.
Yikes. I thought.
“And not one of you will get up from your chair until you finish. Do you all understand? No Bathroom.”
Uh….yeah…well, the teacher didn’t see me standing behind her so she was startled when she saw me.
I smiled, she didn’t.
Rinny ran to me and hugged me with a paper in her hand.
“Just a moment, young lady,” the teacher added, “your work?”
“Oh, I’m done Ms Thompson.” Rinny said handing her the paper.
“How can that be, we all just start…” She paused and eyed Rinny suspiciously.
“It’s a snowstorm.”
“Rinny Nicole Atwell. I have had enough of your shenanigans.”
“It's a snowstorm, Ms. Thompson, really. In Ohio…where I am from, it would get so cold and snowy I couldn't see anything outside my window. It was really scary…”
“I see….” Ms Thompson said. “Well,…I’ll just put it up on the wall later….you may go.”
“Thank you Ms. Thompson.”
Interesting….I never asked Rinny what that was about, if she really just wanted to leave or what. What I did know was that in Ms. Thompson’s Kindergarten Class a perfectly blank sheet of paper hung neatly matted and framed along the wall with everyone else’s on Parent Night.
It was labeled: The Snow Storm