Oh, the Drama

Recently some friends and I were speculating about which gender is easier to raise; boys or girls. The consensus was that boys are easier. As a table full of females, we all remembered what we put our parents through.

May I offer the idea that young drama is not isolated to either sex?

Case in point:

Earlier this week, I was working in a third grade class. It had rained a few days before and when the kids were coming in the door, one boy showed me that he had fallen down and gotten mud on his pants and dirtied his hands. I asked him if he wanted to go to the office to call his mother to bring him clean pants.

"Oh! That would be a disaster!"

Deciding that the damage to the pants wasn't so bad that he couldn't live in them for the day, I told him to go wash his hands and sit down so we could start the day.

"It'll hurt too much! I can't even touch anything!"

By this time, I could see where this was going. His hands were not bleeding, or evens scratched. They were merely dirty. I don't doubt that it hurt when he used them to break his fall, but he could move his fingers, and there was no swelling, so I told him he had two choices: he could go to the nurse to be checked out and call his mom, or he could sit at his desk and do his work. He chose to sit at his desk, which was located front and center.

Throughout the day, several very loud announcements came from this child while I was teaching his class.

"Excuse me, but there's an emergency! I can't find my book!"

"Oh, no! We need to stop! I have to sharpen my pencil!"

And, naturally, the standard reports on what his classmates were doing.

After lunch, he was pulled for RSP. I began a science lesson with the other students and was having them popcorn read the chapter when he came back in. I told him to get out his science book and open it to the page I'd written on the board. He reached into his desk and out fell a whole box of crayons all over the floor. I could see him opening his mouth to tell me about it when I bent down right in front of him and said very quietly and sternly, "you may not announce to this entire class that you spilled your crayons. Pick them up and then catch up to us in the book."

And he did.

Drama averted.