I have started the monumental task of going through the floppy disks that I have been keeping to see what pieces of writing are there that I might want to save.

I found this piece that I submitted to Reader's Digest in 1992 for Life in These United States. I never had a response from them. I wonder what you think...


As a teacher, one often wonders if the students are able to transfer what they are learning in the class to the outside world. Recently a fellow teacher related a funny incident which reminded her of the special view students may hold of their teachers and answered this question of transference with the current social studies unit.
My friend tries to have lunch with her second grade students when she can, to take the opportunity to get to know them better as students and as individuals. During these lunches, the conversation most often turns to what they had been studying in class and the students' families.
At one of these lunches just before the end of the year, she sat with a little girl who had recently moved from Greece. The girl was quite proud of her father and spent the lunch time telling her teacher all about the restaurant he runs and how hard he worked for his living, as the class had been discussing careers as a part of their study of communities.
At the end of the lunch as the two rose to return their trays, the girl turned to her teacher and eagerly asked, "So, what do you do for a living?"


If you have not already guessed, I was the teacher.