Art & Life by Sue Davis

My son has this little problem at school with a certain teacher: he’s on her ordure list, shall we say. He was sitting in detention with her one afternoon for putting his head down on his desk, or some such infraction. He told her school would be so much better if someone paid him to attend. Her reply was that, “Grades are your money (young man).” His response was, “Well, they are like counterfeit money to me. And using counterfeit money is against the law – you can get arrested for that you know.” Her reply: “Would you like another detention (young man)?”

Now, don’t get me wrong, my son is not perfect. He is apt to be very frank with people and was simply stating a fact about how he felt. I thought his response was very clever and too funny for a kid that age to come up with. I burst out laughing when he related that story to a third party. He was explaining the types of behavior that earn detention, not bragging about the ordeal.

Sometimes parents don’t realize the pressures that kids have to deal with every day. We think they have an easy life in comparison to ours. It is always enlightening to listen to a child’s point of view on certain things. And I think that the single most important quality a person can possess is a sense of humor. So lighten up, I say, and try and address the issues that really need attention.

 Sue