This is Theo. He shows fourth-graders love. Last week, he showed something else … and the investigation began.
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When I left my fourth-grade teaching job to start my own consulting business, Theo, the adopted European lop-eared rabbit who had served as class pet for three years, stayed behind. He feeds off the love and attention given him by 23 adoring nine and ten year-olds each day. I couldn’t take that from them, or him.
I remain in contact with several former colleagues, so it was no surprise when I received a text message during the day from one of them. What surprised me was the content of that message:
While I have no regrets about my self-employment decision, it’s moments like these I miss. The times when childhood innocence takes center stage.
Like the time one of my fourth grade boys, who was learning to play the recorder, said very enthusiastically, yet innocently on lesson day, “I can’t wait for Ms. P. (our music teacher) to show me how to use her F-hole.”
Or perhaps the start of a very innocent picture poem during our poetry unit, where the shape of the poem consists of words pertaining to that item.
Maybe it’s simply my childish, immature self that makes me sit back and laugh uncontrollably at moments like this. Then again, that’s what I love about teaching. The students never let you lose your own inner child.
Happy Easter from Theo, whose intestines are just fine.
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