A Pencil Sharpener Honesty Lesson

Since I enrolled Edward in social skills immersion public school during October, I have become accustomed to emails from his teachers which usually have subject lines like “A Situation Today,” or “Not sure how to handle this one please help,” or sometimes simply “Edward!”

(Eureka!   You see now why I haven’t blogged lately.  Not that I don’t have any content, per se, but that I haven’t yet built up the emotional stamina required to withstand all this teacher input!)

The latest one involves an award-winning titanium pencil sharpener, a pencil eraser and my second grader.

Apparently Edward approached his teacher with a concern that the pencil sharpener was “broken,” only to be corrected by a well-meaning (and honest) classmate who offered details regarding Edward’s attempts to sharpen the eraser end of the pencil to which Edward retorted something to the effect of “Silence!  Don’t speak about it!” obviously trying to hide the fact that he had indeed shoved the a$$ end of a Ticonderoga into a rather expensive sharpener that was naturally a gift from a classmate’s  attorney-father.

Naturally.

His explanation?  “I thought it would be interesting and entertaining.”

Sound familiar?

So cut to the Office Depot where we are purchasing a new titanium pencil sharpener for the class.  Edward locates the sharpener and approaches the counter where he carefully studies the box while waiting for other patrons to complete their purchases.

“Look–it says this sharpener is three times stronger than steel!” he muses, garnering the attention of the waiting patrons.

“Is that your personal experience with the sharpener?” I ask coyly.

“Uh, no……….ma’am,” he says looking up at me sheepishly.

And then he’s on.  People are looking, he’s got an audience and he is ready!

“This sharpener broke at my school so now I’m sellin’ my brand new Star Wars Lego Separatist Shuttle complete with Nute Gunray, Onaconda Farr and three Droids.  Sellin’ it to pay for the broken titanium sharpener,” he announces, a little too proudly, to the “audience.”

Yes you are, baby.

Yes you are.