Caleb's courage

My neighbor Jean told me this story. She teaches kindergarten in the room adjoining Caleb's kindergarten class. The front doors are across a small entry way from one another and a back door also links the rooms.

I guess Mrs. Fernandez asked Caleb to go show Ms. Magrino (Jean) one of his papers he had done. He said no, he didn't want to. A little while later he decides okay, I am ready to go show Ms. Magrino my paper. He gets up to leave and decides, no, he is not quite ready. A while later, yes, he is ready now, but wait, no, maybe not. He did this a few times and finally screws up the courage to go. As he heads towards the front door, Ms. Fernandez asks him where he is going. He replies that he is going to show Ms. Jean his paper. She tells him he can't go out the front door because there is no one out in the hall to watch him, he needs to go through the back and adjoining door. Okay, well, no, he doesn't think he will go then. And he never does.

Caleb's teacher also told Ms. Jean that Caleb is really smart. (He really is a thinker, I don't know if it is his age or what, but it is hard to break him from his train of thought, sometimes when there are more important matters at hand.) Jean told her that well, he should be with his dad out there in his work clothes mowing mazes into the grass and reading Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket to them. They really are lucky to have such a dad.




I sometimes think because I have had such good men in my life, ie, my dad, brothers, husband, father-in-law, brother-in-laws, that I take for granted that men are good, caring people who fulfill their obligations and make sacrifices for their families. When I see people who don't believe men really do these things or are just floored by the things that Dan does, I have to think how lucky I am to have been surrounded by them. I also have to wonder if we all understand how different society might be if there were more men like them. Hmm...What do I know?