First (and Second) Grade Philosophy

Today, in my first and second grade reading class, I read them a book that I knew was too hard for them, but, with the help of my head teacher's on-the-fly translating, they were able to understand.  I read it to them because I think it teaches an amazingly important lesson - one that it took me until college and Nate Kerr to learn, and here it was, all packaged neatly into a children's book (that one of my kids already knew and loved, mind you).  Here's what I want you to do.  I want you to log into your Amazon.com account, click on the title of the book below.  Read the preview pages and see if you can keep up with my first and second graders:

The Five Little Fiends

by Sarah Dyer

Now, I don't want you to feel bad if you don't come up with the answers my kids did.  These are the same kids that defined "friend" as "the act of loving." (Well, roughly.  We did that in Korean, so, technically, they defined "friend" as "사랑해.")

Blimey Cow Photo-a-Day 07. Something you LOVE:
My students.
Don't worry, they don't always look as frustrated as the guys do;
I'd just had them line up for their stickers when I remembered I wanted to take this shot.

So, I asked the kids to do a "thinking quiz."  I asked them to tell me what we should learn from this book. Here are the answers I got back, translated from Korean:

1. We shouldn't steal.
2. If we do steal, we should go to the police and give it back.
3. Everything needs everything else.
4. Everyone and everything is connected.
5. We need everyone.

They're impressive little munchkins, aren't they?  AND, this was with no prompting from the teachers, except the repetition of the question.  I'm proud to be their teacher. :)

I'll leave it up to you to decide which theme it took me until college to learn. ;)