Nothing To Do With the House

The thing about 3rd grade is, when one of them decides to do something, they all have to.

For example: Today, Maria decided she wanted to leave her glasses on her desk during PE. She told me, "Teacher, when the ball hits my face I'm afraid my glasses will break." That's fine. I'd be afraid too. She's not the most coordinated little thing. I realized back in November that she needed glasses, and she ended up having a 400/400 perscription. I think she's still adjusting. So I told her to run back to the classroom and drop them off.

What irks me, though, is that the four other kids that wear glasses decided suddenly that they needed to do the same thing. So at the last possible second before PE, I was down five kids. Which makes the PE teacher run late, and makes other teachers unhappy.

As we were standing in line, waiting for the kids to return, I looked at a little boy named Luis who was studying my reaction to the situation. (Luis watches me like a hawk. Incidentally, he can't see either. And his mother won't get him glasses because they can't afford it but aren't poor enough to get free ones.) I think he knew I was irritated. So I decided to joke a bit. "I don't know why everyone wants to do that. I'd want to see. When I was in 3rd grade I always wore my glasses."

Luis didn't respond to that. His contemplative look turned to one of concern. "Did you wear round glasses, teacher? Or square ones, like this?" (He motioned around his eyes.)

"Round ones," I responded.

"Oh good," he said, relieved. "Square ones are for nerds."

"What's a nerd?" Alicia suddenly piped up from behind.

"It's a mean name you call someone when you want to hurt their feelings. You shouldn't use it," I answered, glancing meaningfully at Luis. He looked properly remorseful.

"Oh," said Alicia, thinking a moment. "I thought it was a doctor."