The Great Idea

He is young, excited, thrilled, with his clipboard and new almost-position. His own idea, he wants to be in charge of the focus room, a place for out-of-control children during the school day. He is full of glossy ideas About how terrific it will be for the misbehaving children, And for him, as he can carry around the clipboard and he will have a title. Under his guidance, these children will play chess, and board games, and they will laugh and sing While their classmates, who are behaving, do not play, instead spend their well-behaved time, listening to a teacher ramble on about math, something most of them believe they will never use. In case you did not understand, this means that the child who wings a water bottle at a teacher, And the child who makes the class amazingly difficult for all of the others, Will get rewarded by going to the Focus Room to watch a movie, eat popcorn, and play with the coach while the others are bombarded with math and science, and other boring stuff. You can use the focus room, he told me. Why would I want to? I asked. I have my own room. Because we are making it nice with a cushy couch, bean bag chairs, and a movie theater, With a popcorn making machine, he answered. His great idea. I do not know about you, But as I child, I would Have never left the Focus Room for math or science or any of the other boring stuff I knew I would never use. I did not say a word, not wanting to spoil his great idea.