The Truck

The Truck

         "Miss Johnson, I hear you had some trouble in your classroom yesterday," Principal Carver said to the new kindergarten teacher.

         She smiled, "It was nothing serious, Mr. Carver, but I don't know what I'm going to do with Billy Wilson and Jimmy Allen. All the children get on well, except for those two; they fight constantly about everything."

         "Do they get along with the rest of the class?"

         "Yes, as long as I can keep them apart."

         He thought for a moment, "Do you want to move one of them to another class?"

         She shook her head, "No, I'll give them a little longer. I have a feeling they could be best friends, if they could find some common ground. You know, something they agree about."

         "Ok, we'll leave them both in your class, but be careful what you wish for." Principal Carver said with a smile. Miss Johnson went down the hall to her classroom, wondering what he meant.

         The day went smoothly. Even Billy and Jimmy were getting along, perhaps the problem had solved itself. It was raining, so she told the children they would have recess inside. She gave them choices of things to do: they could look at the books in the reading corner, draw and color with paper and crayons at the tables, or play with the toys in the back of the room. The children happily divided into groups, and Miss Johnson handed out crayons and paper to the group sitting at the tables.

         Billy and Jimmy were in the group that went to the back of the room to play. They both reached for the red truck, but Billy got to it first. Jimmy stamped his foot in protest, "That's my truck!"

         Billy held tightly to the truck, "No, I got it first! It's mine!"

         Jimmy grabbed the truck, "Give it to me!" Both boys pulled back and forth while shouting at each other.

         "No, it's mine!"

         "Let go!"

         "No!!"

         Miss Johnson came running and reached down between the boys, lifted the truck out of their hands and out of their reach. She put the truck on a high shelf. "Stop fighting and sit down." She led them to two chairs . "If you can't play nicely, you will have to sit here for a time out."

         The two boys sat glaring at each other. Then they turned to look at the teacher, who was now across the room with some other children. The argument began again. "You made the teacher mad, and got us in trouble," whispered Billy.

         Jimmy leaned closer and answered, "You started it."

         They both looked back at the teacher, then at the truck on the shelf. "Mean teacher," said Billy.

         "She took the truck," said Jimmy.

         "Yeah, the mean teacher took our truck," they said in chorus. They had found their common ground, and an alliance was formed. Miss Johnson had gotten her wish, but was her problem solved or only just begining?