Tales From the Playground: "No Thank You"

Now that my life basically revolves around my jobs with children, I think the best way to continually write will be to write what I'm seeing and experiencing. Some of the stories are sad, but generally they are riddled with humor and heart-warming moments.
      Tales From the Playground:  "No Thank You"

Possibly the most useless thing we teach our children at day-care is to use “no thank you” as a defense mechanism.  If a child gets a toy stolen from them or is being provoked by another child, we tell them to say – “no thank you.”  Many a wailing child has come weeping with a complaint and we simply pat them on the head and send them back to their offender saying – “Just tell them no thank you.” The child then turns back in the general direction that they last saw the perpetrator and screams hysterically – “No thank you!” 

Personally, I think this whole “no thank you” business is absolutely ridiculous and one of the most useless things we teach our children. Let me tell you about a little boy I am going to call Dracula*. I use this name because he has two perfectly spiked vampire-like teeth, one on each side of his mouth. One day a part-timer comes up to a cluster of us carrying Dracula, who is sobbing, bright red in the face and clutching his head.  The part-timer explains that a group of older boys (Dracula is only two, maybe three) had cornered him on the playground and had knocked him to the ground and were kicking him in the head and face.  One of the teachers looks at Dracula and says – “Go tell him ‘no thank you,’ Dracula.”

So I suppose this is applicable in real life. Should you ever be dragged into an alley in sort of some gang fight and shoved to the ground and then are getting the shit kicked out of you, you’ll be okay if you know what to say.

Moral of the story: You don’t want the shit kicked out of you? Just say – “No thank you.”