Recently a friend and classmate of my nine year old son was seriously injured when he was hit by a car. He is in the hospital and is in very bad shape. This is all the information we have been given. The teacher initiated having the children send him a card. My son brought his version home. Looking over his homework I picked up the card and read his words. In an attempt to cheer his friend up he said, "Hope you feel better soon and watch out for cars." This pithy bit of advice was an attempt at humor. My son, feeling that his friend could use a bit of a laugh, thought of the funniest bit of advice he could. This being the most obviously unnecessary piece of advice he could think of he thought it would also be funny. A good sense of the ridiculous helps when forming a joke, however, one can go too far.
My son got a quick lesson in the appropriate use of humor.
What I understand from this lesson is that sometimes children learn the form of our behavior long before they apply the sensitivity necessary to use it wisely.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment