A Merry Heart…

 “Children are God’s greatest blessings,” Dawn Taylor once said. “In them we find joy, strength and often humour; mostly in the way they word things or as the Bible says ‘out of the mouth of babes’.”

As a teacher, I am privileged to enjoy first-hand many opportunities to hear wonderfully amusing words ‘from the mouths of babes’. Some of the best jokes happen in school, when children aren’t even trying to be funny! That childish humour has enriched and enlightened many difficult days for us, giving validity to the scientifically-proven fact that laughter is healthful for people, because it triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals.

I’d like to share a few of my cutest classroom chuckles, because ‘A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.’ Proverbs 17:22.

Most often it is younger children who cause the biggest chuckles. One such line came from Shaniah when she was in grade 2. While working on a graph depicting the ages of her family members, she declared “I don’t know how old my mom is, but I’m sure she’s in the hundreds.”

In Kindergarten, Marcus, was diligently printing numbers. I looked at his paper and noticed that a three was ‘floating’ between the two lines. “That’s a lovely three!” I told him, confident that he can do better, “But it needs to touch the lines!” After a few moments, he proudly announced, “It’s touching now!” I went to have a look. He had indeed drawn a line from the top of the original three to the line above it. So it was touching!

In ELA class, Joshua was working on a creative story about a song he wrote. “The correct word when someone writes a song is ‘composed’,” Elma Maendel, a teacher explained.

“Oh, I see,” Joshua stated soberly. “My Uncle Ronny is a composer!”

“Well isn’t that grand! Elma exclaimed, “What did he compose?”

“He works for Granny’s ‘Poetry’!” Joshua responded.

One spring day we were writing nametags to go with our Mother’s Day gifts, and Laura was helping Shane, a younger student.

 “Linda, how do you spell Evelyn?”Laura asked.

“E-v-e-l-y-n!”

“That is not my mom’s name!” Shane declared adamantly. “My mom’s name is spelled m-o-m!”

While working on some Father’s Day cards with Kindergarten students some years ago, Elma helped Keith. “I’ll print ‘To Dad’ for you and you’ll trace it, Keith’s prompt response was, “One dad!”

 “I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have.” Jim Valvano, advised in his ESPN Espy awards ceremony speech in March 1993. “To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going.” Less than two months later the New York college basketball coach lost his battle with cancer.