Chapter 9 – Little Children, Big Thoughts

Mrs. Hardy, the kindergarten teacher, had a big smile for Louisa when they greeted each other in the morning. Then she leaned in, like a conspirator, and whispered, "We're going to talk about America today."

"Oh, you are, are you?" and Louisa smiled back. Everyone in the school had become happy and excited for her when word got out about where she was spending her holiday.

"Yes," Mrs. Hardy replied. "I'll tell you how it goes after school."

"Can't wait," Louisa called over her shoulder as she hurried down the hall to separate two boys who were struggling over the same book bag.

Mrs. Hardy asked her students what they would be doing for their holiday. Everyone had something to say. After a lively discussion, she asked them if they knew what Miss Glasson was doing for her holiday. Most of the children could tell her.

Then she asked her students what they thought Miss Glasson would see that was different from Portwenn when she was in the United States of America.

Of course, talkative Robby was the first one with his hand up. "She'll get sick on the airplane and throw up. That's what my cousin did when his family went to Spain."

Everyone began giggling and laughing and it took a few minutes to settle them back down.

"Yes, that can happen," Mrs. Hardy admitted. "But we don't want Miss Glasson to get sick just as she is starting her trip." All the little girls were suddenly serious and shaking their heads no, but some of the boys were still twittering.

"Put on your thinking caps. What will be different?"

Now the answers started coming. Everyone lives in big cities. They eat different food. The cars are bigger and faster. The children have to go to school like we do. I think they like school better because it is not so hard, added another child. The children get to stay up late at night and watch shows on the telly. They have different kinds of dogs.

"They have different kinds of fish," said Tommy, whose father was a fisherman. "They have different kinds of horses," said another. "And different kinds of rabbits too."

It was time for a prompt from the teacher. "Let's not just think about animals."

Hands waved in the air and everyone wanted to talk. All the kids have bicycles in America. And skateboards. And computers. There aren't any oceans in America. There are many big mountains with lots of snow and people get to play in the snow. There's too much snow in America. The houses are only made of wood because there are so many trees in America. The trees are bigger in America.

"There are miles and miles and more miles and miles of highways," said Andy, stretching out his arms to each side and bumping those sitting next to him.

"Andy, stop that," Sarah said and stuck out her tongue at him.

Mrs. Hardy thought a good discussion could ensue after each statement, but the children weren't interested in that right now.

"Do they eat fish and chips?" asked Willie, a rather rotund little fellow who was always thinking of food. The class was divided on that one. Half the class put up their hands for yes when Mrs. Hardy asked his question and the others thought the answer was no.

"I think they only like to eat food from America," answered Katherine, the serious thinker in the group.

"People there don't like lemonade," said Anna.

"Why do you say that?" asked Mrs. Hardy.

"Because everyone drinks Coca-Cola in America," was her reply.

"What do you think, class?" Mrs. Hardy asked.

Robby again, "My mum lets me drink cola." Probably every night, Mrs. Hardy thought to herself.

"Well, I think the grownups drink beer at their pubs just like here," said Jamie and everyone nodded in agreement.

"The people are very tall, like giants," said Alexander.

"No," said another boy. "Only the ones who play basketball. I watch that on the telly with my dad."

That primed more comments about sports.

"The best game in America is called football, but it is not like our way to play football," clever Marshall explained.

"They don't play rugby in America." "Yes, they do." "They can play anything they want to."

"Remember, raise your hand," Mrs. Hardy reminded them.

Someone called out, "The children in America are lucky because they get to play outside all day long." Many long sad sighs were heard after that comment so Mrs. Hardy reminded them that next week school was over for the summer and then they would be outside playing all day too.

She brought their talk together to an end by thanking all her students for their good thoughts. She suggested that they could ask Miss Glasson about some of these ideas when they saw her again at school next term. All in all, it had been a very lively discussion.

Louisa laughed with Mrs. Hardy later when she saw the notes that the teacher had scribbled as fast as she could. "I still had trouble keeping up with their busy little brains," she explained.

Mrs. Hardy was pleased that Louisa agreed that she could share these young insights into life in America at Louisa's farewell party.