When I came to the school I'm currently at, I was replacing a former teacher they call Mr. B. He taught P.E. class and some other subjects, and I don't think the kids especially liked him, except his lack of structure and discipline.

They ask me, "Are you just going to let us play basketball like Mr. B did?" or they say, "Mr. B never made us run." and so forth.


Anyway, today we were walking to the field to play kickball with the 2nd graders. I was carrying one of the new soft kickballs that the school purchased with our Go-Girls-Go grant money. I thought this ball would work much better than the soccer ball or the volleyball we had been using. I told the students to walk behind me, and they kept yelling about all sorts of things. Above the steady white noise that is the 2nd graders I heard:

"Mr. K, you have way more balls than Mr. B ever had."

I told the kid, "Thank you, but please don't ever say that again."