What is WRONG with my eyes?
January 9, 2013 8:44 AM   Subscribe

When classes resumed after the holidays, David and Exavier overheard another boy saying he received no gifts for Christmas. "He didn't have a Christmas tree, so Santa didn't bring him nothing," David said. . . . It was then that the two teachers in Room 117 realized what was happening. They were witnessing what Bukosky would later describe in a letter to Principal Wendell Smith as "the most amazing random act of kindness by first-graders."
posted by Madamina (32 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Screen went blurry very quickly.
posted by IndpMed at 8:50 AM on January 9, 2013 [12 favorites]


What a great story and a great way to start my day. I do hope that the interwebs respond in their typical fashion to this, given that the address of the school and names of the teachers were published in the article, by showering that classroom with books and school supplies. I, for one, don't think it's too late for them to get a Secret Quonsar gift ...
posted by scblackman at 8:50 AM on January 9, 2013 [9 favorites]


How awesome! What a wonderful pair of kids.
posted by zarq at 8:52 AM on January 9, 2013


That was a super sweet story but I'm more interested in the blurb below--is there a TARDIS in Milwaukee???
posted by leesh at 8:52 AM on January 9, 2013 [7 favorites]


Wow...that is just so powerful. I needed to read this today.
posted by inturnaround at 8:54 AM on January 9, 2013


For the kingdom of heaven is for such.
posted by No Robots at 8:55 AM on January 9, 2013


I love it when kids have been taught to have compassion for their peers. So much better than bullying.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:58 AM on January 9, 2013 [5 favorites]


I did do a Donors Choose search just now, but nothing came up for that school.
posted by Madamina at 8:58 AM on January 9, 2013


That was a super sweet story but I'm more interested in the blurb below--is there a TARDIS in Milwaukee???

Blue police call box, you say? Sadly, the Milwaukee police call boxes would have to be a lot bigger on the inside - there's an article about the restored box here.
posted by zamboni at 9:08 AM on January 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


Kids are born with compassion, it's just gradually drummed out of many.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:08 AM on January 9, 2013 [7 favorites]


What a great story, thanks, I needed that!
posted by Hazelsmrf at 9:09 AM on January 9, 2013


Aww. That was both more sweet and lovely than I was expecting. Especially considering that I had initially read that name as "Bukowski."
posted by evidenceofabsence at 9:10 AM on January 9, 2013 [5 favorites]


The fact that one of the kids' ideas for a gift was something handmade just got me right in the feels.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on January 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


apparently it did so to the extent that I actually gave in and used "the feels" after swearing to myself that i never would.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:14 AM on January 9, 2013 [6 favorites]


Blue police call box, you say? Sadly, the Milwaukee police call boxes would have to be a lot bigger on the inside

That's mildly disappointing. At least I have these two boys and their niceness to cheer me up!
posted by leesh at 9:16 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Damn you mefi, you made me cry at work! And if anyone finds a way to ship goodies to that classroom, please post it in the thread.
posted by Joh at 9:17 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]




Kids are born with compassion, it's just gradually drummed out of many.

"We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy." - Mignon McLaughlin.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:46 AM on January 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


I can't get sucked in because I'm so annoyed by "gifted" as a verb. Well.. okay. Maybe a little. Those are some great kids.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:02 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I think kids do this kind of thing more often than we so-called grown-ups know.
posted by tommyD at 10:04 AM on January 9, 2013 [5 favorites]


Gifted students!
posted by Kabanos at 10:43 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


There's something in my eye. Sniff.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:57 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Kids are born with compassion, it's just gradually drummed out of many.

Hmmm. I'd have said the complete opposite, most nice kind kids are that way because they have great parents or siblings who spend a lot of time talking to them about being kind and polite and help them see the world quite differently than they might left to their own devices.
posted by fshgrl at 11:04 AM on January 9, 2013 [8 favorites]


More on Milwaukee call boxes:

Ahh the old call box. I pulled the alarm on a fire call box when I was a kid. One of neighbors ratted me out. Bastard.
posted by MikeMc at 11:14 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I wept because I had no shoes, until I met a boy who had no Pixar-licensed Disney tie-in Cars merchandise.
posted by charlie don't surf at 12:18 PM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'll take that statement as a joke, charlie, so no biggie.

But on the flip side -- not knowing anything about these kids except the stereotypes I'd associate with being Latino and/or from Milwaukee -- it's possible that their parents are not the kind of people who have a lot of time to sit down and research the merits of which Mo Willems book has been selected as the most developmentally appropriate for their kids while still being appealing to read on their own.

Or perhaps this kid DOES have access to every educational and material thing, but thought it would be nice to share something that he really liked. (Or something that he really didn't like but thought the other kid would like.)

Books are just like food. Literary versions of Aldi off-brands absolutely exist: things that don't seem quiiiiite right, and you're mostly okay with them but still really wish you could buy the kind that everybody else knows and uses.

But how awesome would it be to not just get a present where none existed before, but get something COOL?
posted by Madamina at 12:38 PM on January 9, 2013


If you liked this, you will love That's Not Fair which is a teachers guide to activism with kids.

(The reader reviews on the link are also hilarious!)

In any case, as someone who has worked in non profits, and has a young kid, this book was interesting because it talks about how kids work in the "charity model" (i.e. give you stuff=prob solved) while adults often try to push for other things. This post is an example. Kids will see their friend not getting a gift, so a gift is the obvious solution, while the reporter talks about "poverty and whatever else is going on at home", and sees the systemic stuff, and are amazed kids view is different.
posted by chapps at 12:40 PM on January 9, 2013


Little Moishe Rubenstein was puzzled by the gifts, but greatful nonetheless.
posted by johngumbo at 12:41 PM on January 9, 2013 [15 favorites]


I'll weep when first-graders random acts of cruelty will be deemed worthy of news.
posted by surrendering monkey at 12:55 PM on January 9, 2013


Nice story.
posted by turgid dahlia 2 at 2:50 PM on January 9, 2013


gottabefunky: "Kids are born with compassion, it's just gradually drummed out of many."

Kids are born with equal measures of compassion and cruelty. Neither compassion nor cruelty t get "drummed out" of people, they just tends to naturally fade with time unless nurtured.
posted by Bugbread at 9:52 PM on January 9, 2013


(The reader reviews on the link are also hilarious!)

Hilarious in that "laughing so I don't cry" sort of way.
posted by naoko at 3:11 PM on January 10, 2013


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