The Announcement

One day, in first grade, I was demonstrating a math problem on the white board. I was explaining away, and I turned my head and asked something about tens and ones, to gauge how much they'd understood: "Now what happens when you have 12 ones? What can you do with that?"

A little hand shot up eagerly. A boy with a buzz cut, and a missing front tooth. I nodded at him (the signal for "go on, tell me") and he shared:

"The baby, that was in my mom's stomach, it came out!"

Me: 0_o

Now, I am used to getting answers that have nothing to do with the question I just asked. The problem was his answer could mean something wonderful or something terrible. I cautiously asked "Oh? What was the baby, a boy or a girl?"

"Girl!" he announced. He sounded happy, yes, this was a birth announcement. I exhaled. He continued:

"She is a girl, and her head is this big (he compared it to his palm). Her hands are really small." He couldn't remember her name, or what day she was born. But she was born.

I said "Wow, that's wonderful. Thank you for telling us. Alright, now back to tens and ones..."


If this kid sent out the birth announcement, it would look like this: