Teaching and Learning

I followed a young father and a tiny girl crossing the parking lot at Von's Market Tuesday. She was holding on to a finger of his right hand. There was something
egalitarian about the pairing despite the great difference in their heights.He matched his pace to hers,not leading,guiding,pushing or pulling. There was nobody else in their world at that time, not even Mommy.

They came to the eight inch sidewalk curb and they both stopped with their feet against it. He still did not try to lift her on to the sidewalk or help her at all. She couldn't have been more than thirty inches tall; the curb was a problem she had not confronted before.

She put her right foot upon the curb but didn't know what to do next. She put the foot back down, did a wiggly little dance and hopped up on the curb with both feet.

I probably laughed out loud. What I wanted to do was to applaud both of those wonderful people. I guess my normal friends wondered what I was laughing about all day.