On Sunday Austin's teacher forgot about the 1 hour time change. Since the teacher arrived nearly an hour late, that meant a classroom full of 8 year old boys was left alone for the better part of an hour, about 50 minutes to be exact.
Normally we, as a Primary presidency, would be aware of this problem, but since our Stake leaders were visiting this past Sunday we were a little distracted. And none of the boys in the class came down to tell us that their teacher was absent.
So when I finally got the rolls out at 50 minutes past the hour, I was surprised to see there was no teacher in Austin's class. I said, "Where is your teacher?" They all responded with excitement, "We don't have one!" I said, "No one came today?" and they said "No". I looked around the room in amazement. I say amazement, because the situation I walked into is not at all what I would have expected.
The chairs were in a circle.
They all had their scriptures out.
They were reading together.
Quietly.
Reverently.
What?! I know I shouldn't be so surprised, but come on. We're talking about 8 year olds here. Let me point out here that this class is made up of 8 boys and 2 girls. The girls were absent along with 1-2 boys. Typically this would be a recipe for disaster, right? Paper airplanes, spit wads, wrestling matches... are just a few things that come to mind...
So as the poor teacher rushed in, realizing that things were in full-swing and he was an hour late, I quickly told him what had happened. We were both so impressed.
When I got back to Primary and shared what had happened, we all decided that the boys deserved some recognition. So when the Senior Primary filed in for Sharing Time, we invited them to come up front and commended them for their good behavior. They all received a penny for the gumball machine that the Song Leader uses during Music Time. It was really cute to see how their little chests puffed up- they were so proud of themselves.
I was sitting next to the Primary president, who also has a son in the class, and both of us were dabbing at our eyes. We were so proud of our boys!
Good job Austin!
10 comments:
What a great story! I guess sometimes our kids can surprise us -- pleasantly surprise us. What good examples they were for the rest of the primary. I would have been dabbing my eyes too.
Wow, I'm seriously impressed, shocked and amazed!
Wowza! That really is something to be proud of.
I am really quite shocked! I've taught that age group before, and they weren't always that well-behaved, even with a teacher! Very impressive indeed.
An amazing story for sure!
good for them and hopefully they felt good enough about there choices to make them again
That is so cute! Does make you proud and amazed! So good of you guys to really reinforce the good behavior. They will repeat it now.
I would be proud too! That is so impressive!!! What great kids! It is so nice to have those moments when you see that some of your hard work is well worth it.
I think you should send that one into The Friend! Most adults wouldn't have done that well without a teacher!
I am so impressed by this. I would never have thought 8 year olds would behavior so reverently when left alone. I'm so glad they were recognized.
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