Learn from Penelope

One week ago I started my 7th year of teaching at St. Mary's School. I teach English, so it seems obvious that I would read with my students. With all of my junior high classes, I read "We Don't Eat our Classmates" by Ryan T. Higgins. This is a children's book that has an awesome message for all ages. I will admit my some of my students were hesitant when I asked them to sit on the floor around me while I read to them.

This story is about a little T-Rex named Penelope who is so excited for her first day of school. She has her pony backpack and pony lunchbox. Her favorite thing in the world is ponies because they are "delicious." Needless to say, Penelope is very surprised when she realizes she is the only T-Rex in her class and all of her classmates are children. Without giving away too much of the plot, Penelope's first day is not the best. She realizes that it is hard to make friends when you eat them.

Isn't this sooooo true. I mean think about how many people you try to avoid in your life because they "eat" you so to speak. Or the number of times you hear or see adults or kids being unkind or mistreating someone. Sometimes it takes being in the other person's shoes before we realize how hard it is. Penelope learned this lesson as well when the class pet, Walter - the goldfish, bit her finger. She was horrified that he bit her. She recognized that her classmates didn't enjoy being eaten either.

My students laughed and we talked about the silliness of the book. But we also talked about how we can figuratively eat each other with our words, actions, or lack of words and inactions. We decided to use this phrase to remind us of being kind. So don't panic if you hear any of the big kids saying, "Guys, we don't eat our classmates!" Moral of the story: we are trying to be good and follow the Golden Rule.