A "Super" Day

In “A Clergyman’s Daughter,” George Orwell wrote about a teacher’s excitement over seeing a student’s enthusiasm for learning suddenly flare up to match her own. This week in school, I shared a similar, albeit small, spark of wonderment over a newfound discovery with a young scholar.

“Mr. K, what is this?” asked Valerie during the fifth grade’s quiet reading time the other day. She pointed to a word in her paperback.

“Banister,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the railing alongside the staircase in your house.
“Oh. I never knew it was called that,” she said. “Thank you.”

Valerie retreated to her desk. Moments later, she was back at mine.

“Look.” She was pointing excitedly to another word in her book and smiling. The word was “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

“Isn’t that funny,” she said. “I never saw it spelled out before. My dad tried to spell it once, but he said he thought he made a couple of mistakes.”

“Did he try to spell it after you watched ‘Mary Poppins?’” I asked.

“Yes. Wasn’t that so good!”

Nothing better, I thought, not thinking of the movie.