Miss Jones had been giving her second-grade students a lesson on science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron. Now it was question time, and she asked, “My name begins with the letter ‘M’ and I pick up things. What am I?”
A little boy on the front row proudly said, “You’re a mother!”
A teacher was helping one of her kindergarten students put his boots on. He asked for help, and she could see why. Even with her pulling and pushing the boots, they just didn’t want to go on.
By the time she’d finally gotten the second boot on, she’d worked up a sweat. She paused for a moment, convinced that she had somehow managed to win the battle. That’s when the little boy looked down at his feet and calmly said, “Mrs. Smith, they’re on the wrong feet.”
She looked, and sure enough, they were.
It wasn’t any easier getting them back off and putting them on the correct feet. She tugged, twisted, and wrestled with the stubborn boots until she finally managed to get them where they belonged. Just as she was catching her breath, the little boy added, “These aren’t my boots. They’re my brother’s.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“My mom made me wear them.”
She bit her tongue and managed to keep her cool. But she mustered up the courage one more time to wrestle those boots onto his feet again. When she finally finished, she looked at him and said, “Now, where are your mittens?”
The little boy smiled as though he had been waiting for that question all along.
“I stuffed them in the toes of my boots.”
A science teacher asked her students, “Children, if you could own one material, what would it be?”
One girl immediately raised her hand and said, “I would choose gold. It’s worth lots of money, and I could buy a Corvette.”
One boy thought for a moment before saying, “I would want platinum because it’s worth more than gold, and I could buy a Porsche.”
The teacher nodded, impressed by their answers. Then she turned toward Little Johnny, who had been sitting quietly and listening to everyone else.
“Little Johnny, what would you want?”
Johnny answered without hesitation, “I would want silicone.”
The teacher frowned, genuinely puzzled. “Why would you want silicone?” she asked.
Johnny shrugged innocently and replied, “Well, my mom got some, and there’s always a Porsche or Corvette sitting in our driveway.”
For a moment, the classroom went completely silent.
The teacher opened her mouth to respond, then thought better of it. Apparently, Little Johnny had learned a very different kind of science lesson at home—and he had just delivered the most unexpected answer of the day.
