Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Honorable Mention:The Importance of Spending Time With Children


"Who forces time is pushed back by time; 
who yields to time finds time on his side."
~The Talmud

My team teacher was humming the verse to the song “Cat’s In The Cradle and The Silver Spoon”. She was about to drive me bonkers.
“That song is just stuck in my head!” She giggled as she left the room with some dirty dishes.
“No kidding” I said.
Just then I heard arguing outside the preschool room door and Zach and his dad walked in. It wasn’t Zack’s day to come but it wasn’t unusual that his dad brought him on off days.
“But Dad, you said we could go do some gardening today.” Zack said.
“Zack, you know dad has a presentation tomorrow, right buddy? Next time.”
Just then my team teacher walked in and broke out into song;
Ohhh, the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man on the moon,
When you comin’ home son I don’t know when
We’ll get together then, dad, ya know we’ll have a good time then…
Zack’s dad stopped at door and turned around.
“Come here, buddy…let’s go do some gardening!”
Zack jumped from the coloring table and left with his dad.
“Hey! That was a first,” said my team teacher, “I wonder what happened?”

6 comments:

Barbra The Bloggess said...

Okay...so, my team teacher sing the song was making me bonkers, but hearing the words from the video just about made me cry...
Where's my tissue!

VKT said...

Barbara,

What a wonderful story! I have taught so many "Zachs" whose Dads and even Moms were too busy to spend time with them or come for a special event at school. To watch their tear streaked little faces is hard.

Barbra The Bloggess said...

I know what you mean VKT,
The author of this song actually wrote the lyrics for his son. Harry Chapin said there was a fear in him as he sang it. I'm glad he shared it with the world...time is something you can never get back, that's what makes it so valuable.

Theresa Milstein said...

That's great that the song actually works!

Jenni said...

Wow! Thank God for PERFECT TIMING...and a dad who knows the song :)

Maybe we should have that playing on a loop in classrooms every morning.

Dan Gurney said...

I love that song. If we forget to live in this very moment, we may as well not be alive, for there is no other place than here, no other time but now.