Changing Plans

Changing Plans

Mr. Grant sat at his desk. Across it sat Ronald, swinging his legs and making drumming noises when they hit the chair legs.

“Ronald,” Mr. Grant said, “I need you to pay attention.”

“Oh, sorry!” Ronald said, looking around as if he had just appeared in the chair out of space.

“Are you listening? I need you to listen,” Mr. Grant said.

Ronald immediately stopped looking around the room, and stopped wiggling, and stared straight into Mr. Grant’s eyes. “Yes Mr. Grant?” he added.

“I am going to help you find a direction to your life. Let’s start with a question. Where are you going? Where do you want to go?”

“Well,” Ronald said, thoughtfully, sometimes we go to visit Grammie, that’s fun. I would like to go to Disney World someday, or China maybe.”

“China?” Mr. Grant asked, caught off guard.

“I really like Chinese food.”

“Ronald... I didn’t mean where you want to go visit. I meant what do you want to do with your life. Like what do you want to do for work, when you’re fully grown I mean. It’s good to have an idea so you can work toward it.”

“You mean a grown up job?”

“Yes,” Mr. Grant said excitedly, feeling he had finally gotten the conversation going in the proper direction.

“Oh! Yes! I know! I want to drive a ice cream truck!”

“An ice cream truck?” Mr. Grant asked.

“Yes! Then I could have ice cream all day long!”

Mr. Grant looked at Ronald, now smiling like crazy at the thought of eating ice cream all day long, suddenly aware that he was going to have to give in to the school committee. It was blatantly obvious, now, that ‘Career Goals’ was not something you can discuss with first graders.