The Great Mrs. Shields

“Do you want to know something, Mommy?”  Toby asked on our way to school today.

“What, Toby?”  I asked with an equal mixture of trepidation and curiosity.

Although the daily grind of getting Toby to school by 8:45 every morning has its difficulties, one of the perks of the job include the random array of conversations that we have had; everything from religion to saber toothed tigers to the intricacies of the St Mary’s kindergarten social scene.  I never know WHAT to expect when our morning drive starts out with such an open ended question but I am always keen to find out.

This morning’s sequeale caught me off guard.

“I know how old Mrs. Shields is.”  He said with great factual confidence and pride.

“Oh?” I answered, wondering what line of questioning his poor kindergarten teacher had endured yesterday

“Mrs. Shield is ONE HUNDRED years old.”

I rolled my eyes and then launched into a conversation I have had many times before (often stemming from his incessant asking of my mother’s age) about how it is not polite to ask people (especially ladies) how old they are.  I concluded the lecture with my own equally confident statement, “And just so you know, Mrs. Shields is NOT one hundred years old.”

“Oh YES she IS!” came a voice from the back seat.  “I KNOW it, Mommy. It’s the TRUTH.”

“Did ZACK tell you that? Toby?” 

There is only one other person on the planet whose word usurps the word of his beloved Mrs. Shields and that is his friend, Zack from SENIOR kindergarten.

Zack is from England. He flies an airplane to school every day and eats pop tarts for dinner every night.  He is the fastest runner in the class AND the best reader.  If Toby and Zack are still friends in grade 2 I suspect it will be Zack, not I, who will teach Toby the facts of life and I undoubtedly may never have grandchildren as the result of it.

The pause that ensued confirmed my suspicion but Toby wasn’t letting down.

“No…” he said hesitantly after a think, “I read it in a BOOK.  So it’s the TRUTH.”

I wasn’t sure where to go from here.  Should I reinforce my previous stance on the impoliteness of discussing women’s ages or work harder towards correcting what is OBVIOUSLY incorrect?

I decided on a combo approach and encouraged him NOT to mention this conversation to Mrs. Shields while subtly reiterating the fact that she probably WASN’T actually 100 years old.

The first part was quickly forgotten as he leaped to defend his position even further. 

Realizing that there was no way either one of us could reach consensus without actually seeing Mrs. Shields’ birth certificate, I told Toby that we would just have to agree to disagree.

“Well WHAT does THAT mean?!?!” an exasperated five year old sighed from behind me.

Determined to have SOMETHING good come of this conversation I explained to him that sometimes when you are disagreeing with someone you recognize that neither of you are going to agree and so you just reach a friendly agreement that you will have a different opinion on the matter.  (Phrased in much more kid-friendly jargon.)

Toby thought about this for a little while before heaving a sigh of resignation.

“Well OK that’s fine with me, mom.”

For a brief second in time I thought I had won.  Until I heard the end of his sentence…

“As long as you realize, though, that Mrs. Shields IS one HUNDRED years old.”

I conclude this post with an addendum:

I wrote this post with great hesitation as I worry that it maybe misconstrued in ANY way to imply that Mrs. Shields is anything but the wonderful, young, energetic kindergarten teacher that she is.  This time last year I worried incessantly about Toby’s transition to kindergarten and all of my fears were instantaneously relieved the moment I laid eyes on the great Mrs. Shields.  She not only captivated Toby’s heart and respect but reminded me of my own wonderful kindergarten teachers.  I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to transition my precious boy into his school years and will be forever grateful to her for being that reassuring link.  And just for the record; although she may convey hundreds of years worth of wisdom to her students, to me she has done nothing but remind me that we are never too young at heart to love and learn from these precious years.

We all thank you, Mrs. Shields, no matter how old you are, for a wonderful first year at St. Mary’s!