Boomerang Theory

When our students go to special area classes, they wear tank tops labeled with their names, which helps us get to know them. With a school of 1000 children, we need all the help we can get! Well today, the main point of our second grade guidance lesson was that our behavior is like a boomerang. What we "throw out" to others is what will often come back to us. If we throw out peace and goodwill, we'll usually get kindness back, and of course the opposite is true, too. After our story, I asked the kids to think of ways we can throw out trouble and ways we throw out sunshine. As I called on individuals to give examples, I looked down at a little blond boy's tank top. I realized that the name on his shirt wasn't his, and that he had on another child's jersey. Looking around, I spotted the boy he'd gotten his shirt mixed up with. Spontaneously, the two took off their tanks and tossed them across the group to each other. Laughing, I said, "Okay, y'all played a trick on me! You were throwing out thunderstorms!" As quick as a wink, a clever boy sitting in the line of fire quipped, "No, they're not throwing out thunderstorms, they're throwing out tank tops!" His classmates loved it, and so did I!