Reading is Fundamental

Anybody remember the commercials for RIF?

I read to Bean's class. They all file in and sit down and a couple of the kids from last year's class are really happy to see me. C and K are girls in the class and M is a boy.

C: Hi Miss Liz!!!!
Me: Hi, C.
C: (Pointing at small boy rolling around on the carpet) That's M. He's BAD!
Me: You know, C, it's not very nice to say things like that about our friends.
K: (very earnestly) Oh, but he is bad! He really is.
Six other kids from the class join the chorus of how M is Bad.
Me: Oooookay, then. Well, how about we read this story!

Afterwards I laughed 'til I cried. Maybe you had to be there, but they were all so serious. Later, one of them told me all about how M is so bad and his apple is always on the trunk and never in the tree. "He's going to get A LETTER to his parents!"

One of the other moms had helped out earlier in the day. C sits at Bean's table (which is nice because they were buddies in Pre-K) along with two boys. M is one of the boys. So the mom is telling me how everyone knows M is going to get in trouble for something so Bean just took over cleaning up the table and organized everyone and shepherded M through the process. Cracks me up. My little organizer.