Out of the Mouths of Babes

by Irwin Lengel
(Auburndale FL USA)

Always looking and thinking of ways to write something that might elicit a smile or laugh or two, I took an article I read some time back and added a little twist to it. Hope you enjoy it.

Now that she had retired, Mrs. Bookbinder, a former elementary school teacher, decided that she needed something to keep her busy several days of the week. Seeing that she had an extensive library at home, was always a book reader, loved children, she was excited when learning that the local library was looking for a new part-time librarian.

Having been a schoolteacher for many years, she loved working with elementary school children. Knowing that cursive writing was slowly disappearing from the curriculum in elementary schools, she had a thought.

When the children would come to her desk to check out a book or books, instead of checking out the books herself, she would have the children check them out by having them sign their names. This, in her opinion, would make the children feel more responsible for the safe return of the book(s) and by signing their names would encourage them to continue using cursive writing.

As luck would have it, her first customer was a third grader who had brought five books to take home to read. She could see that the child was surprised to see a new face behind the counter. The child shoved the books across the counter to her and informed her what his name was so that she could check them out.

Mrs. Bookbinder slid the books back and told him to sign them out. With a little bit of a huff and puff, the boy laboriously wrote his name on each book card and then pushed the books back across the counter looking rather upset and disgusted with what had just happened.

Before Mrs. Bookbinder could even get a word out to thank him for what he had just done, the boy looked at her in disgust, and said, “the other librarian we had could write.”

“Out of the mouths of babes!”

Hope this little story brought a smile to your face. Have a great day.

Until next time.

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