Big Hand Little Hand Long Hand Short Hand

When I was little I thought the older a person was, the more brain cells you grew. Thus, older people are smarter than little people. That thought was long gone by the time I was four or five. At eight I was so confused by big hand and little hand on the clock, I thought I would lose my mind. Big hand to me was little hand, because the big hand they were talking about was the thin longer hand. Thinner to me meant little, not big. The thick hand they were calling little hand actually should have been referred to as short hand, but it Was not. To the big people it was little hand. To me it was big hand because it was the fattest hand. I did not know how to tell time for about a hundred years, because it did not make sense! I could not get it, so of course, this was the unit I was elected to teach when I was a student teacher. And for those of you who like math, do you understand a bit more why the word math strikes terror in my soul? Big hand. Little hand. Good golly, Miss Molly. If they had only used short hand, and long hand I would have immediately understood Because I KNEW words. Not math, not telling time, not numbers, but I did know words. Teaching me to tell time would have been insanely simple, if the right words could have been used! Why did they not understand what I was trying to figure out? Because they did not LISTEN to me. I was a child, after all. A child who knows her words. Big hand for long hand? Long hand for big hand? Everyone was too busy shaking their head and telling me ‘no’ to realize what I was saying. Listen people, listen, because your children are smarter than you know, and they are Trying to talk.