Mrs. Parker had been teaching second grade for nearly twenty-five years, and if there was one thing she’d learned, it was that children could surprise you at any moment.<\/p>\n
That Tuesday morning, she wrote a grammar exercise on the whiteboard in big blue letters:<\/p>\n
Name something that ends with “tor” and eats things.<\/strong><\/p>\n The children immediately began whispering excitedly to one another.<\/p>\n “Who has an answer?” Mrs. Parker asked.<\/p>\n A little boy named Ethan shot his hand into the air.<\/p>\n “Yes, Ethan?”<\/p>\n “Alligator!”<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker smiled.<\/p>\n “Very good! That’s a big word.”<\/p>\n The class clapped politely.<\/p>\n Before she could ask for another answer, another student nearly jumped out of his seat.<\/p>\n “Me! Me!”<\/p>\n “Go ahead, Mason.”<\/p>\n “Predator!”<\/p>\n “Excellent!” Mrs. Parker said. “Another great example.”<\/p>\n She was feeling rather proud.<\/p>\n Maybe today’s lesson was going to be easier than I thought,<\/em> she mused.<\/p>\n She looked around the classroom.<\/p>\n “Does anyone else know another word that ends with ‘tor’?”<\/p>\n Slowly, from the very back row, a hand rose into the air.<\/p>\n It belonged to Johnny.<\/p>\n Johnny wore the biggest grin Mrs. Parker had ever seen.<\/p>\n Whenever Johnny smiled like that, one of two things was about to happen.<\/p>\n Either the class was going to laugh…<\/p>\n …or she was going to need aspirin.<\/p>\n Trying to stay optimistic, she pointed toward him.<\/p>\n “Yes, Johnny?”<\/p>\n Johnny stood confidently.<\/p>\n “Vibrator.”<\/p>\n The classroom instantly fell silent.<\/p>\n A few children looked confused.<\/p>\n Others simply waited for Mrs. Parker’s response.<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker nearly dropped her marker.<\/p>\n Her face turned bright red.<\/p>\n She cleared her throat.<\/p>\n “Johnny…”<\/p>\n She searched desperately for the right words.<\/p>\n “…a vibrator doesn’t eat anything.”<\/p>\n Johnny blinked innocently.<\/p>\n “That’s what I thought too.”<\/p>\n He shrugged.<\/p>\n “Until I found one in my mom’s bedside drawer.”<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker felt every teacher nightmare unfolding in real time.<\/p>\n Johnny continued without the slightest hint of embarrassment.<\/p>\n “It had a note taped to it that said…”<\/p>\n He paused dramatically.<\/p>\n “Warning: Eats batteries like crazy!”<\/strong><\/p>\n For one second…<\/p>\n The room was completely silent.<\/p>\n Then every child burst into uncontrollable laughter.<\/p>\n Even the classroom hamster seemed startled by the noise.<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker slowly covered her face with both hands.<\/p>\n She knew she wasn’t going to recover control of the class anytime soon.<\/p>\n Just then, the principal happened to walk by and poked his head through the classroom door.<\/p>\n “Everything all right in here?”<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker lowered her hands and forced a smile.<\/p>\n “Perfectly fine.”<\/p>\n The principal looked around at twenty-five children laughing so hard they could barely breathe.<\/p>\n He raised an eyebrow.<\/p>\n “What happened?”<\/p>\n Before Mrs. Parker could answer, Johnny cheerfully called out,<\/p>\n “We’re learning vocabulary!”<\/p>\n The principal looked at Mrs. Parker.<\/p>\n She looked at the ceiling.<\/p>\n He decided it was probably better not to ask any more questions.<\/p>\n Later that afternoon, when parents arrived to pick up their children, Mrs. Parker gently pulled Johnny’s mother aside.<\/p>\n “I wanted to share something funny that happened today.”<\/p>\n After hearing the story, Johnny’s mom covered her face in embarrassment.<\/p>\n “Oh… my… goodness.”<\/p>\n She started laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.<\/p>\n “I left that note there because I kept forgetting to buy batteries.”<\/p>\n Johnny looked up at her.<\/p>\n “So… it doesn’t actually eat them?”<\/p>\n She smiled.<\/p>\n “No, sweetheart.”<\/p>\n “It just uses them up really fast.”<\/p>\n Johnny nodded thoughtfully.<\/p>\n “I guess batteries are its favorite food.”<\/p>\n His mother couldn’t stop laughing.<\/p>\n Neither could Mrs. Parker.<\/p>\n The next morning, Mrs. Parker walked into class with a new rule written across the board:<\/p>\n Today’s vocabulary words must come from the textbook only.<\/strong><\/p>\n Johnny slowly raised his hand.<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker sighed.<\/p>\n “…Yes, Johnny?”<\/p>\n He smiled.<\/p>\n “Does ‘calculator’ count?”<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker narrowed her eyes.<\/p>\n “It depends.”<\/p>\n Johnny grinned even wider.<\/p>\n “I just wanted to make sure.”<\/p>\n The entire class burst into laughter once again.<\/p>\n Mrs. Parker laughed too.<\/p>\n Because after twenty-five years of teaching, she’d learned that some lessons come from textbooks…<\/p>\n …and some become the stories teachers tell for the rest of their careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mrs. Parker had been teaching second grade for nearly twenty-five years, and if there was one thing she’d learned, it was that children could surprise you at any moment. 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