Saturday, April 5, 2008

The Death of Innocence?

There is a sign in my classroom, which reads: "Profanity is the crutch of the conversational cripple." I made it in response to hearing I'd be getting a student who had the mouth of a sailor. Perhaps he was inspired by the sign (he read it out loud on second day he arrived and asked me what what it meant), because with two minor exceptions, I never heard a single cuss word out of his mouth while he was in my class.

(Truth be told, if the saying is true, I am mildly disabled.)

I'll never forget the day my Kyle came home from kindergarten and announced brazenly, between mouthfuls of crackers, that he had learned "the three S-words" at school that day. I was crushed! My sweet, innocent baby, already corrupted by the troublemakers at school?! I was saddened, and tried to think of a way to undo the damage.

Defeated (and a little hopeful) I replied, "Oh, you did, huh? What are they?"

"Stupid." "Shut up!" and "Sucks!" he offered cautiously, worried about my reaction.

"That's right," I said, my spirits lifting. "Those are the three S-words, "and I don't ever want to hear those words from you again."

"Okay, Mom."

We had dodged the proverbial profanity bullet, and it would be years before he heard much worse epithets (on the school bus, of course.) But that's a whole other post...


  1. the way i put it is that people who use expletives lack imagination. there are so many other words that work so much better.

  2. I said the word "sucks" the other day and of course, 3 1/2 year-old dylan repeated the word over and over and over again.


  3. My 4 year old son picks up a lot of things from daycare. It seems TV is just as bad anymore too. He does at least listen and remember when we tell him the words are bad and not to do it again!

    Thanks for your comment on my blog! I hope your daughter has a great time in Seussical. The kids I just saw seemed to love it. Great Blog:)

  4. My 5 year old's favorite "naughty" word is BARNACLES! Sometimes TV (i.e. Spongebob) is not such a bad thing!

  5. My six year old actually says *s-word!* (exactly like that). Or he'll use "bleep!" as a swear word.

    Of course, he has a nine year old brother but that doesn't make me like it any more.


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