My Fearless Leader

A few weeks ago, Seth wore his Denver Broncos jersey to school. It was the first time he chose to wear something other than a polo, which he has somehow decided is the official look for school. His jersey is something special, however, and although it doesn't have a collar, it has routinely worked its way into his classroom fashions.

Once he walked into his classroom, his teacher looked at his shirt and said, "Seth, you can't wear that in here!" When his teacher recounted this story to me, she told me Seth looked a little panicked until she followed with, "We don't like the Broncos in this room. We cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs!"

A rivalry was born and when I went in to volunteer last week, she told me how much fun she is having with Seth and is amazed at his memory of specific games. He remembers how many times the Chiefs fumbled against the Broncos last year and other random statistics. It's crazy. Seth comes home each day and reports with glee the ribbing he and his teacher gave each other that day. I explained to him that while it's fun, it's more important for him to show respect for his teacher and to never, ever say something rude or mean. He assures me that he never would and his teacher reported the same thing.

On Monday, Seth snuck home his classroom journal. His teachers looks through it every week and makes comments. Her last entry to him basically told him that he had so much to learn that year. Lucky for him, she was his teacher because he would eventually realize that the Chiefs were better than the Broncos. I think it's hilarious that she is keeping this up with him.

The entire class has been working on writing persuasive letters. I know that Seth is working on a letter for me in class, but he came home and told me that he wanted to write one to his teacher to persuade her to cheer for the Broncos. We worked on it a couple of nights ago, sealed it in an envelope and he took it to school with him the next day.

Today, when I volunteered, she told me how much she loved that letter. She's been showing it to all the teachers and around her church group (her husband is a youth minister) and everyone is impressed with Seth and his passion. Right before I was about to leave, they were finishing working on finding errors in sentences she was writing on the overhead projector. Things like words that needed to be capitalized, missing commas etc. The last sentence she wrote was, "The kansas city chiefs are the best football teem in the united stats of america" When she uncovered it, the entire class roared. 25 seven and eight year olds shouting, "No! The Denver Broncos are the best football team!" Every kid that went up to the overhead to make a correction tried to cross out Kansas City and write Denver or replace Chiefs with Broncos. It was a classroom sensation.

After the sentence was fixed, Seth's classmates' eyes were bright and they were all murmuring to each other about how they were going to convince their teacher to cheer for the Broncos. He has his entire class converted to his cause. I know it's about football, and all kids like to get the kind of attention Seth's teacher has been giving Seth, but it still makes me smile. I love how he has embraced his class and they have embraced him. I love how his teacher has used this one kid's quirky passion and gotten her entire class working together. Most of all, I love that Seth has shown that even if he's the new kid, he still stands up for what he believes in.