Me: standing with arms behind my back, waiting sternly for class to line up quietly.
Small K at the front of the line: Miss, you should be a lawyer.
Me, raising an eyebrow: Why, because I've got the suit?
K: No, cause you act like a lawyer.
Me: And how's that?
K: You're...like, serious.
Me, trying not to laugh: ...
J, on the other line: But you're kinda funny too.
That same class later got into a debate about my age, when I was talking about Krakatoa. I said that most of the planet heard or felt the explosion, and one kid pipes up, "Did you hear it?"
I rounded on him and said, "It happened in the 1870s! [Oops, I was off by a decade. My bad. Also, read The Twenty-One Balloons if you haven't. Such a great book!]"
Him: ....
Me: You think I was around in the 1800s?!!
Him: No! You're like, 35.
And then, while I was still standing there at the front of the room looking at them trying not to roll my eyes and giggle while still straining to hear all the voices and opinions--they were totally debating with each other--like, no way! she's not in her thirties! I swear I heard the number 47 at one point. I think small K was saying I have to be in my mid twenties.
Oh man. I kind of like that stuff, even though I'm all stern and have to shush them from that off-topic talk.
2 comments:
I had the same thing last week. It's inevitable. One kid said I was 46. I told him he might as well leave for the rest of the year, because he wasn't going to get anything higher than a 55 from me on his report card. Ha ha.
Then, when they do find out how old I am, it's "Oh, my sister is older than you!" or "You got kids, Miss? My sister is younger than you and she got kids!"
Teachers can't guess my age. My kids certainly can't. So I claim 74 or something like that and keep teaching. "You're not 74!" "If you already knew, why did you ask?"
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