A non-crass substitute story.

Friday I subbed at Guilderland Elementary School. If you are from this area, you will understand that this is a suburban district, where even the black kids are white. (Coming soon: contemplation on the term "black"). All of the classes of the day were third grade.

The task of the day was to make origami dog and cat heads. I panicked a little. "This won't possibly be enough to amuse them for 40 minutes."

Luckily, I was wrong. They were psyched to fold little dog and cat heads and color them in. Some students finished early, and I allowed them another piece of paper or two to make a second animal.

I overheard one little boy, talking to himself. "Now for a duet!" he declared.

Thinking that this couldn't possibly be what he meant, I tried to clarify: "Did you mean duel?"

"No, duet!" He answered confidently.

"Well, maybe first a duel," he said, no longer to me.

After sparring several paper cat heads together, it was time for his original intentions to be realized. "Now, onto the duet."

As he danced the cat heads across the table, he sang: "...no col-ors an-y-more they all will turn to black.."



Yesssss