by Travis Vermulm
“Mr. Travis, Mr. Travis, Mr. Travis,” a cadence of my name arrives every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning from several different kindergarteners. Sometimes the children ask for help on a homework assignment or show me a picture they’ve drawn and describe it to me. Sometimes, however, the children just want to talk.
Children often say and do whatever it is that comes to their minds. This non-filtered action and speaking provides a lot of interesting stories and hilarious encounters throughout my week. In the next series of posts, I will tell you a few of my favorites:
ELI
Eli is a quiet child. He is prone to sitting silently at his desk and staring at whatever is in front of him. Sometimes he needs prompting to continue his work, but he always finishes his tasks eventually. Eli is also known for a very large and distinctive imagination. Asking him what he is drawing in a picture is an adventure of uncertainty. For example, I once asked if he was drawing himself (a stick figure was prominently featured at the center of his page). He looked at me and shook his head, “No, I’m drawing a superhero mannequin.” The superhero was expected, but for a five-year-old to look at me straight faced and pronounce that his stick figure was actually a mannequin, and I could not help but laugh silently to myself at how unique Eli’s answer was.
Not many days after this encounter, the students were back to their drawing books. I saw Eli, with a concentrated look on his face, making his best efforts to draw a very even series of squares. He seemed to be putting them together in what looked like the shape of a car. I wandered over, curious, and knelt beside his desk, “What are you drawing Eli?” I asked. “Is that a car?” Again, Eli looked at me with a stoic and wide-eyed expression as if my assumption at his square’s being a car was a trivial guess. “No,” he answered, “It’s a Traeger.” For those who don’t know, a Traeger is a brand of barbeque/smoker that has gained significant popularity in the last five years. I guess he must have seen one somewhere and decided that was the drawing of the day. The unexpected joys of working with children occur daily.