Sunday, April 13, 2008

Fast Food crisis.

Last Friday I'm in a 5th grade class teaching empathy. We'd just completed a hands-on activity that pumped up the message, and now we're processing to drive it home. The class is silent, mesmerized. Suddenly, without warning or a raised hand, a boy in the front announces:

"You have something black in your teeth!"

Instant mental rewind to an hour an a half earlier--I'm late for my first class, dashing out of the office, shoving a handful of trail mix in my face in an attempt to stave off hunger until my 11:00 break. Peanut skin, surely the guilty culprit.
And then it dawns on me:

You have had this black object in your teeth for the last hour and a half. You've taught 3 classes with it. At least three teachers and nearly 75 students have seen this foreign atrosity and said nothing.

I laugh it off and continue processing the activity, purposely calling on the long-winded students to buy time to dig it out. No luck. The class ends ten minutes later, I beeline for the bathroom and take a look. It's the size of a bus and right in front. My worst nightmare realized. Everyone has their little self-conscious quirks, and food in teeth is one of my biggest. I scoop it out (it takes several attempts).

Stupid trail mix. Next time I'm grabbing a banana.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

NICE.

You know what though?

I wouldn't have told. I'm one of THOSE people. I can stare at a booger fleeing from a nose for hours and not say a word. Me and the 5th graders.

Sorry.

Anonymous said...

You know I'm the same as Maggie on this one, hon. Sorry, too.

Viva los boogers!!

Heather said...

I would tell you! I had so sweetheart students that would whisper stuff like that in my ear and warn me!