Two of my students lost a tooth today.
Losing a tooth at school means you get to write out a yellow nurse pass. If you are bleeding and have to hold a Kleenex in the tooth hole, you may have a friend write your nurse pass. On your way out the door, you drop your tissue on top of the trash, with the blood displayed like some kind of announcement.
In the nurse’s office, you swish with warm salt water from a white paper cup. The nurse gives you a purple plastic tooth box, and you place your tooth securely in it, but on your way back up to class, you can’t help opening it twice, just to look. It’s a molar.
You shove the tiny box into your jeans pocket, where it forms a bump that you can’t stop touching, just like the tooth hole your tongue keeps finding, smooth, like a pecan from the playground. Later, at the window, you open the box again, hold your tooth up to the light, and show your friend.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradleyallen/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I savored every image, remembering my own, my children's, every lost tooth. somehow the essence of childhood and first step towards "growing up." Why are they hurrying away from magic?
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nancyboflood
That's a great question, Nancy. Why are they in such a hurry? Maybe our society's media pulls them ahead into that world of what's next? and what's after that? ... Thankfully, they still get pretty darned excited about a lost tooth. Those two kids were beaming yesterday. It's fun to witness. It takes you back.
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