I spend a significant portion of my work day surrounded by students. They range from 1st grade all the way to Seniors in high school. Recently I was visiting an Elementary school to help out with the lunch/recess hour. I walked by a class of 2nd graders outside as they sat on their little mats eating their little lunches. Every once in a while a tiny arm would shoot up towards the sky and I would make my way towards it. Usually it was a kid wanting water or help opening up a tightly wrapped snack in their lunch box but on this occasion I found myself approaching a little boy with a very troubled look on his face. 

Once he realized that he had my undivided attention he told me what the problem was. According to him, the other little boy directly to his right kept telling people that the boy who had called me over didn’t like cookies. That's right, someone was spreading a nasty rumor about him. However, upon further investigation I learned that the only person to hear this rumor was the person the rumor was about. In other words, boy number two was talking direct shit to boy number one. 

I asked the boy who had called me over if he indeed did like cookies. He said, “Yes, I love cookies.” I asked if he was sure and he enthusiastically repeated himself. I then turned to the other boy and asked him to tell me what he had just heard the other kid say. He told me that he heard the boy say that he loved cookies but that he didn’t believe him. At this statement the other boy got very frustrated again and flopped to his side in agony. “But I do like cookies, I love them!” he said. I took a knee on the asphalt and told this boy that I believed him and he perked up a little bit and said “really?”. “Yes really,” I replied. 

I then turned to the other boy and asked him why he cared if this kid liked cookies or not. He paused for a moment and just shrugged his shoulders. I accepted his nonverbal answer and then turned back to the boy who started this whole thing and asked him a very simple question. I said, “If you know that you love cookies, then what does it matter what anybody else thinks?”

Even though this kid was just a second grader I could see his brain light up. He was considering my question and just when it seemed like he was going to answer, the girl to his left, who had been listening silently the entire time, chimed in. She confidently and matter of factly said, “you both like pizza!” At this the two boys looked at each other, started to giggle and rolled around on their mats with the kind of joy only children and mythical creatures of the forest can muster. The girl had a triumphant look on her face as she joined in the laughter. I backed away from the scene picking up a discarded milk carton on my way out.