Are the kids born between 1982 and 2000 just plain dumb? That’s what Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein argues.
His point is that the explosion of social networking and technology has led to a generation obsessed with their social lives and ignoring intellectual pursuits.
Bauerlein, with his new book, The Dumbest Generation, kicks off a debate and interesting discussion here. Be sure to scroll down to the comment section.
A couple of weekends ago a colleague of mine related to me a conversation she’d had with some elementary teachers. The topic of the conversation was a specific icebreaker game called “blanket drop.”
According to these teachers, girls are always better at this game than boys. Hands down. No contest. They went so far as to say, “Never make teams of boys against girls for this game. The girls will crush them. Every time.”
They were emphatic that this is true, but had no idea why.
Understanding my passion for the topic of sex differences, she thought I might have the answer. Indeed, if you read the literature, it won’t take long for you to find the research that supports this observation.
But still–I wanted a little proof. So I tried it in my own room. Then, I wanted a little more proof. So yesterday, in a call for data, I shot out the following email to all staff here in St. Croix Falls. If you’re reading this, and you teach, please consider taking part in my admittedly unscientific (but still totally cool and fun) research.
Here’s the email:
Hello everyone,
I’ve stumbled upon a topic that is fascinating me: brain-based gender differences.
Recent research has shown some striking differences between how boys and girls sense and interpret the world around them. I think this is so interesting that I am inspired to do a little research of my own. I’m not replicating this study, so I’m not sure what the data will show. I’ve heard some pretty remarkable (undocumented) observations though–so I just thought I’d see if I might be able to back it up with some hard data.
That’s where you come in.
I started this “research” in my class today (8th grade) but I’m realizing my data set is way too small to be confident about my results. I also have some suspicions that age may play a factor.
So if you’re willing sometime, I would love if you would play this game in your class and keep track of the results. Many of you have probably played this in the past.
Blanket Drop (estimated time: 5-10 minutes). Here’s how:
- Divide your class into two teams–boys vs girls.
- Have two people hold up a blanket and have the teams stand or sit (sitting worked better for 8th graders) on each side of it so that they can’t see the other team.
- Have one person from each team sit in a chair in front of their side of the blanket.
- The two people holding the blanket, drop it (I found on a count of 3 works well).
- The first to say the other person’s name wins a point for their team.
- Keep a tally and email me your results. First team to 10 works well, but run it however you like. I just want the tally.
I’ve heard that, at least at the elementary level, girls are much (again undocumented) better at this than boys. I’d like to prove that out.
My limited results today show girls are somewhat better in 8th grade. Girls won 36 times. Boys won 25.
I would greatly appreciate if you could find the time to play this game with your students and record your results sometime before the end of the year. Like I said, I am very curious to see if results change as students age, so I’m encouraging everyone to participate. This is NOT an official action research project, just something I’m curious about. Maybe now you are too.
One thing that might also be interesting (though it didn’t occur to me to record this until we were done) would be if you would also keep track of ties. My 8th graders had a lot of ties. I’m thinking the number of ties might also correlate with age. But again, I really have no idea.
I will share our collaborated results in a weekly email as I get additional data.
Thank you in advance for considering to take part in my little experiment!
Chris
P.S. I have a blanket you can borrow if you need one.
If you’re still reading, I’d love to hear from you. Please try this game in your own room and share your results in a comment below. Or maybe you’ve had some other interesting experiences that illustrate (perhaps unexpected) differences between the sexes.
So it’s 9:00 and my 5-year-old is stalling her way through our nightly bedtime ritual of taking vitamins. This is how it goes:
Me: (filling the dishwasher) Take your vitamins.
Nora: Yes dad. (mumbles singsong nonsense but makes no move toward vitamins–of course I don’t notice this because it takes everything I’ve got to focus on filling the dishwasher)
Me: (5 minutes later) Nora. Are you taking your vitamins?
Nora: I just don’t like chewable calcium.
Me: Just chew ‘em up and let’s get this over with.
Nora: Yes dad (mumbles singsong nonsense)
Me: (This time I’m on to her) Nora! Chew!
Nora: (Chewing, humming, she singsongs), Cumbersome, cumbersome cumbersome . . . Dad, do you know what “Cumbersome” means?
Me: (curious, I tear myself away from the Tetris game of trying to fit bowls into the top rack) What does “Cumbersome” mean?
Nora: (casually breaking off a humming tune) It means “heavy.”
Me: (trying like hell not to look astonished . . . and then wondering if she knows what “astonished” means) Where did you learn that?
Nora: Word Girl . . . Do you know what “Vicious” means?
Me: (now totally distracted from the tasks at hand) What?
Nora: “Mean.”
Me: Yep. That’s cool. (But thinking–Holy crap!)
I’d seen her up at the computer, playing around with the Word Girl site–watching the flash videos, playing the games, clicking here, clicking there. Her big sister taught her the ins and outs a few days ago.
But I didn’t think she was actually LEARNING anything!
Apparently, I was wrong. We spent the next fifteen minutes talking about the adventures of Word Girl. It took me that long to realize she’d stopped taking her vitamins and just prolonged her bedtime.
Curses! Foiled again by that meddling Word Girl.
Like many, when I was younger I thought the world was my oyster—probably because it was something my teachers or parents told me. Today I understand that the world is nothing like a slimy mollusk. In academic circles we call this type of thing an “idiom.”
Still, we all want our children to have confidence. So, as a member of civilized society, I think convincing kids that the world is an oyster is good practice. Nothing bolsters the courage of developing children as much as confusing them with obscure idioms. Plus it’s fun to do with a grand sweep of the arm. Like this:
Civilized Parent: (sweeping arms dramatically), “Kid, the world is your oyster.”
Child: “My oyster?”
Civilized Parent: “Yep.”
Child: “Don’t you eat oysters?”
Civilized Parent: “Um . . . sometimes.”
Hint to Parents: At this point I’ve found that if you keep flailing your arms in an enthusiastically encouraging manner, kids will normally just take your word for it and move away—especially when with playmates. Which brings me to my next point.
When my youngest daughter, Nora, who is five, gets together with her cousins, they always have a good time. But as an unbiased-impartial-civilized-parent-observer, I’m often struck by how different the kids are. Though very close in age, one of them seems strikingly more intelligent. She listens better to instruction, speaks more clearly and has a much greater vocabulary.
And since (again from totally unbiased perspective) the smarter kid belongs to me, I am drawn to this logical conclusion: I am obviously the better parent.
Recent scientific research, however, suggests that all this has much less to do with my parenting skills (and use of oyster idioms) than I thought. Nora and her cousins are the same age, but what I failed to realize is that in order to make a fair comparison, they also must be the of same species, and since Nora’s cousins are from Mars, obviously, they are not.
Nora’s cousins are boys.
The science (and thus teaching and parenting) of brain based gender differences is a very new field of study, but the research is piling up. Obviously, we all know that boys and girls are different, but we have only recently begun to discover just how very different they are. For years, schools (and parents) have been teaching boys and girls the same things in the same way, partially because we fear that to do otherwise would give one an unfair advantage in the battle of the sexes. We’ve been fooling ourselves.
Study after study has shown now, beyond a doubt, that boys’ and girls’ brains are very different. They use different areas for different tasks (language is just one example). They receive and interpret sensory input differently (girls hear certain tones a staggering 10 times better than boys). They develop and mature at different rates (brain scans of 5-year-old-boys look similar to those of 3.5-year-old girls). Their brains float (as it were) in different hormonal and chemical soups.
For 16 years Dr. Jay Geidd has been using advanced MRI imaging processes to map the development of kids brains.
“In general,” Geidd says, “we think the girls’ brains are maturing a bit faster than the boys’ brains.”
But not in all areas.
“Certain parts of the brain involved in mechanical skills or projectile estimations actually mature somewhat faster in boys,” Geidd says.
Dr. Leonard Sax, a psychologist and author of several books on the topic of gender differences agrees.
“Both boys and girls are being shortchanged as a result of the neglect of hard-wired gender differences,” says Sax. “By the age of 12, the geometry area of a girl’s brain looks like an eight-year-old boy’s brain. They’re four years behind. But the language area of a boy’s brain is three-to-four years behind the language areas of a girl’s brain.”
“Girls and boys differ profoundly in how they hear, how they see, how they respond to stress –and those differences are present at birth.”
To illustrate this point, Sax points to a study by Janel Caine at Florida State University that documents the benefits of music therapy for premature babies. What she found was that preemies who were played soft music in their hospital cribs grew faster, had fewer complications, and were allowed to go home sooner than those that were not played music.
But the most interesting part of that study comes to light only after you break the data down by gender. Do this and you find that baby girls who received music therapy in their cribs went home an average of nine and a half days earlier than those that did not. Boy babies, however, left not a single day sooner. Music therapy was great for girls, but did nothing for boys.
Similar studies have confirmed and clarified this information by documenting that for a 1,500 Hz tone (the range of sounds critical for understanding speech), the average baby girl has an acoustic brain response about 80 percent greater than the average boy. It’s no wonder girls seem to learn language skills sooner than boys!
Yes, yes, I can hear you saying, but what does any of this have to do with oysters or idioms?
The trick for parents and teachers is this: Resist the urge to compare. If we are to have half a chance of convincing our children that the world is their oyster, we have to understand that each child has his or her own unique strengths. These strengths will develop in their own time. Because we love our children and want the best for them, sometimes this schedule may not match up with our developmental expectations. This is often disturbing or irritating. The answer, I think is to remember what oysters do with irritants—they create pearls.
This story out of Georgia today, while a little disturbing, is bringing the teaching of teamwork and problem solving to a whole new level. Quite frankly (regardless of whether or not these kids would have actually gone through with it or, worse yet, been successful) I’m impressed with their planning and organizational skills.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall (or on the monkey bars) as they hashed out the logistics.
I came home from work tonight to learn that my eight-year-old daughter has been keeping something from us.
She’s getting teased.
Thankfully it only started yesterday. But that’s two days now she’s had to endure it. I feel bad for the kid–kind of. Because tonight, after some discussion and role-playing, I think we gave her some tools that should help.
Now I kind of feel sorry for those who are going to tease her.
And actually I’m thankful this happened because the whole experience could really set a firm cornerstone in her personal development.
Here’s the story. A couple of days ago, Emma (7 years old and in 3rd grade) told a friend that she liked a boy. Now, obviously, I wasn’t there so I didn’t hear the context, but from what I know of “the boy,”— heck, I like him too.
He’s even been over to our house a couple of times. He’s nice, he’s funny, he’s polite and he’s fun. He might even be a little cute. Bottom line: he’s a good kid, and I’m glad that he and Emma are friends.
Anyway, so now kids are making kissy faces, singing “Emma loves J_____”, drawing hearts on her back with their fingers and whispering his name in her ear.
This morning, in the silence following the pledge of allegiance, some boy shouts out, “EMMA LOVES J_____!” for the whole elementary school to hear. ‘Course, it’s all over after that. Kids are joking and whispering in the halls. Poking fun at the boy. The way Emma tells it, now everybody, 1-4 is totally whipped up.
And Emma’s completely humiliated.
Apparently it got so bad that Emma’s teacher had to lecture the class about the how inappropriate all this is.
Understandably, Emma hasn’t had a great last two days.
Then tonight—we had to put our dog to sleep.
And to top it all off she’s had trouble telling us about the teasing. I think she even started doubting herself and her feelings. Were they bad feelings? Did she do or think something wrong?
In the past, as parents, we’ve joked around the topic of “boys.” Nothing big (in my mind), but apparently big enough for Emma to cause her to hesitate.
Not good.
Talk about a kid under stress.
After she let it all out to her mom, Lisa did a smart thing. In order to get a clear picture, she asked Emma (as non-threateningly, non-judgmentally as she could) about her feelings. Did she want to hold hands? Kiss?
The answer?
“No. I just like him. You know—he’s funny.”
(WHEW! Right all you dads? You know what I’m talking about.)
Great, fine—so now about this teasing. They turned to me.
“Dad,” they asked. “What can Emma do or say to make the other kids stop teasing?”
To be honest, nothing really great came to mind. I had to think for a good while. Because really, I don’t think I’ve ever thought too much about an effective countermeasure. You can try to ignore it and hope it blows over. You could tell them to “shut-up” or “grow-up” but let’s be honest—shyah . . .like that’s gonna work!
Children are, well—childish. They’re going to keep on as long as it’s interesting and fun. So I started thinking—what was so fun about it?
Well, it’s about something mysterious: “Young Love.” Something they really have no idea about but want to appear to have the upper hand in. And then it hit me. Emma had to face it head on—without the shame, or guilt or fear that is assumed to be there.
“Emma,” I said. “These kids are teasing you because they don’t know something, and that ’something’ is a little bit scary to them. But one of the coolest things in the world is a kid (especially a young girl) with unshakable confidence. So what if you just tell them that ‘Yes, you like J___ . So what?’ What would happen?”
“Well, I did say ‘So . . .’ once to a boy that was teasing me.” She said with the hint of a smile.
. . .teasers are like dogs that chase you because you’re running.
“What happened.”
“He just stopped. He didn’t know what to say.”
“That’s right,” I said, “because teasers are like dogs that chase you because you’re running. Or better yet, like a dog that barks but backs up at while he’s doing it.”
Then Lisa came up with the best comeback yet.
“Next time a boy says, ‘Emma Loves J____,’ look him square in the face and say, ‘That’s right. I love a lot of people. And you’d better watch out because you might be next.’”
I wish you could have seen the smile spread across her face. I wish you could have heard her giggling. I hope someday you can feel the relief and joy I felt when Emma said to me, as she was brushing her teeth, “I wish I would have told you guys sooner.”
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a king living happily with his queen and two princesses. All was well in this particular kingdom until one evening. The king was putting the final touches on some speech or declaration and was just preparing to retire to the royal bedchamber when the queen came with news.
“Our daughter, the eldest princess, has informed me that she has a lump, and it pains her.”
The king’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s worrying her,” the queen continued. “It is not like her to welcome the doctor, but tonight she’s asked me to make an appointment with the royal physician. You know–and since her nanny just passed of cancer–this lump doth make her nervous.” Read the rest of this entry »
Normally, when confronting salvation army bell ringers, I try to look very busy and avoid eye contact. They make me feel guilty. If I can go out of my way to avoid them by sneaking in a side or back entrance I will.
I’m a jerk, make no excuses for it, and have no defense. I’m a selfish, crabby, cynical, skeptical kind of a person.
So I wouldn’t be caught dead standing around, freezing my butt off, ringing a bell outside the doors of a busy shopping center–under normal circumstances. I mean, what if someone I knew saw me? I have a reputation to think about.
So what does Lisa do? During one of my Masters weekends, while the clipboard is going around at church, she signs us all up to man a shift of bell ringing outside of Walmart.
I hem. I haw. But eventually I come around. After all, it’ll be a great character builder for the kids, and a good family memory. Plus it’s not like I have much of a choice.
But then Lisa comes down with pneumonia which leaves me holding the bag (or the bell) on a blustery single-digit December Sunday morning.
Sheesh.
So I muster all of my courage, bundle up the kids and decide to make the best of it. It’s only for an hour, and we can always duck inside the store to warm up if we need to.
The ringers just before us got cold during the last half of their shift, so they bought hand-warmers and stuffed them in their gloves to help keep warm. Having no use for them, they gave them to us–which was very cool . . .I mean warm . . .I mean nice.
Next, we strapped on the aprons and started ringing–and saying thank you . . .a lot. The money poured in. I was shocked at how many people dropped spare change, and bills into that red pot. I actually saw a crumpled twenty spot stuffed into the slot–with a smile! Little children pleaded for coins then struggled with their mittens to drop them in the slot. You could see people digging out their wallets and into their purses while they walked toward us in the parking lot.
Not only that, but people actually started thanking us (you know, for standing out in the cold ringing the bell).
What did I learn from all this?
For a child, losing that first tooth is a significant event. It marks the beginning of the end of “Babyhood,” and can even be viewed as an early of Rite of Passage. For all of those reasons, we will always remember the evening that my oldest daughter, Emma (who is now nine), lost her first tooth. But for us, it also marks the night we received the first of what have so far been seven mysterious yet fascinating letters.
Emma finds them (along with a small amount of money) under her pillow the morning after offering her latest tooth. I think these letters are significant because, for reasons I have yet to discover, the Tooth Fairy has begun to confide in Emma by sharing secrets that, for centuries, have been kept from from the human world. More to the point, the Tooth Fairy has begun to gently pull back the curtain on an incredible world in which magic is a little more complex and interesting than I ever imagined.
Truth be told, I’m not sure the Tooth Fairy would want me posting these letters. But the way I see it, if not, she should have known better than to share magical fairy secrets with a blogger’s daughter.
About a year ago I posted on my personal blogthe first of seven letters we have so far received. Originally I was surprised that the simple little post generated so much interest. But I guess I shouldn’t have been. It’s not every day a person gets the opportunity to learn fairy secrets. And I guess letters from one as famous as the Tooth Fairy are pretty unique.
So here goes. What follows is a copy of each of the seven letters (in chronological order of course) that Emma found under her pillow. I remember that she also found some money, but really, that’s nothing compared to this:
12/23/04
Dear Emma,
Congratulations! You finally lost that tooth!
What a relief. Do you feel any different now that you’ve lost that first tooth? Loosing teeth is a sign that you are growing up. It sure was a long time in coming. I know that most of your friends have already lost a few teeth. Don’t feel bad because you’ve only lost one so far. There are three things that make teeth valuable to me—and this tooth has all three of them. This is a very magical tooth and I’m glad to have it. Do you want to know what those three things are?
1. Age—the older the tooth the better, because it has a longer time to soak in all of the good magic that you create.
2. Health—a good, strong, white, pearly tooth always gives more magic than ones that are starting to decay.
3. Goodness—a tooth from the mouth of a good child always has much more powerful magic in it than a tooth from kids that are naughty. Your tooth is super duper strong and has lots of magic in it.Emma, I’ll explain more about the magic, and what I do with your teeth later (probably next time you loose a tooth) but for now just understand that you are a very special girl, so you have very special teeth. The teeth that you give me really help me a lot.
So keep on being that wonderful, unique girl that you are. Keep taking care of those teeth. I love you very much. And thank you for letting me have your first tooth. It’s very special, and very magical.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy
Dear Emma,
Congratulations! You finally lost that second tooth!
And you pulled it out yourself this time! That was very brave. I guess you don’t need anybody (like your teacher) to bump into you anymore. You can take care of this stuff yourself.
Emma, I just have to tell you that I love your teeth. They have such powerful magic in them. It sure is taking a long time for me to get them. But it is so worth the wait. They are so Magical! Can you keep a secret? Don’t tell your friends this, but just one of your teeth has as much magic as 10 of the teeth I normally collect from kids.
Remember what I told you last time about what makes a tooth magical? Age, Health, and Goodness? Well your teeth are so magical because they are high in all three of these things. Keep up the good work!
Emma, let me tell you a little bit about what I do with the teeth I get. A lot of people get confused about this. Some people think I use them like bricks and build magical white castles. Some people think I just collect them in jars and save them. Well I don’t do either of those things. I grind them up.
Yep I grind them up into a really fine powder. Actually I grind them up so much that I make dust. Tooth dust. It’s pretty cool. but also pretty worthless. Worthless, that is, until I add a special secret ingredient that I get from some friends of mine. I’m running out of room here, so I’ll just say that the two ingredients alone don’t have much magic. But when mixed together . . . WOWY ZOWY and PRESTO! MAGIC FAIRY DUST!
If you’re a good secret keeper, I’ll tell you the other ingredient next time. But for now, just keep being the wonderful little girl that you are. You are truly a magical, wonderful child. And I love you.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy
Dear Emma,
Congratulations! You finally lost that third tooth! And your first top tooth. That’s always fun. Plus now you get to have your second grade picture be special. You’ll have to remember to smile big so the camera can get a good look at that big space in front.
And again you pulled it out yourself ! Well sort of. Actually, lots of kids loose their teeth when brushing them. But here is something that I bet you didn’t know: When a child loses a tooth while brushing, it makes the tooth 10 times more magical. That’s because brushing makes healthy teeth. And you remember the three ingredients for powerful magic, right? Age, health, and goodness.
Emma, I just have to say again how much I love you’re teeth. They have such powerful magic already, but since this one was lost while brushing it’s sure to be supercharged.
Are you keeping my letters, Emma? I only ask because last time I wrote I told you what I do with the teeth that I collect every night from girls and boys all over the world—grind them up into magical fairy dust. But I also said that tooth dust by itself was pretty worthless. Worthless, that is, until I add another super secret ingredient I get from some special friends of mine. I usually don’t tell anybody this, but I feel like I can tell you because you are giving me such powerfully magical teeth.
Well my special friends are bees. But not just any bees. A special group of bees. I’d have more time to write but you lost your tooth right before bed (which is another way to make a good tooth more magical—because I get it when it’s still ultra fresh).
Anyway, I’ll tell you more about my special friends next time, but for now, do you think you can guess the secret ingredient? I’ll give you a hint: It’s very dusty. Good luck! You’re such a smart girl, you’ll probably figure it out lickety-split. But don’t worry if you don’t. I’ll tell you the next time I write—the next time you loose a tooth. Just keep being the wonderful little girl that you are. You are truly a magical and wonderful child. And I love you very much.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy
Dear Emma,
You must think I‘m magic or something. I mean, you go to bed at 10:00 and still think that I have time to get organized, collect teeth from children all over the world and write you a letter?
Well, you are right—I am magic!
And you sure are cute without those two front teeth.
Have you guessed the secret ingredient yet? Yep, it’s pollen. Each type of pollen and combination and mixture of magic tooth dust creates a different type of magical fairy dust.
Pretty cool, huh.
Well, more next time. I really have to get going—before the sun comes up.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy
Dear Emma,
Well, it’s been awhile. Do you remember the last time I made a visit? That was way back in September. A lot has happened since then. You are really growing up fast! This is the fifth tooth you’ve lost already. And the sixth one isn’t far behind!
The last letter I wrote to you had to be pretty short because you got to bed at 10:00. This one won’t be much longer. You got to bed at 9:30! But I know that your mom and dad played volleyball last night. So it wasn’t all your fault you got to bed late.
Anyway, awhile back I was beginning to tell you about the secret behind my magic fairy dust. Do you remember the part about how children’s teeth are magical, and I grind them up into a fine powder? But then I also need a special secret ingredient to release the magic. Remember, Emma, that I said it had to do with bees?
Well, this is the secret ingredient—bee pollen! And there are all different kinds depending on the recipe you (or more precisely) the bees make. Do you know what bee pollen is Emma? Do you know where it comes from?
Well, I don’t have time to tell you right now. But unlike everything I’ve told you about the magic, the mystery of bee pollen is not a secret. Just look it up in a book (I know what a good reader you are), or ask your teacher. Your parents probably know too.
Well, until next time, keep being the truly wonderful magical girl that you are. You really are special. You can do anything that you decide to do. All you have to do is try! You are so smart and talented. But another thing that you are is (don’t tell anybody) magic! Yep. You didn’t even know it did you. Some people have real magic in them. Some don’t. But you do! I can see it! It helps you to do the things that you try to do—even when you are a little afraid to do them! Actually the magic helps you the most when you ARE a little afraid to try something—but you try anyway. I’ll explain more about that next time. It’s time for me to fly.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth FairyP.S. I hope you can start to stay in your own bed soon. I know you really want to. The magic works much better for you when you do. Plus it makes it easier for me to find you and leave you these messages. When you move around, I kind of loose sight of you.
Dear Emma,
Well, I think that was one of the quickest turn arounds I’ve ever done! The second night in a row! Geez! That’s pretty cool. The sixth tooth. Wow that was fast!
Well, tonight was another night that you went to bed late. Isn’t 8:00 supposed to be your bedtime? Well, I know that it wasn’t your fault again. You do such a good job of helping to get your sister ready. That really helps. And remember, every time you help out, it makes your teeth that much more magical.
Last night you asked me what my name is. It’s Aibell. That was a very good question. I think you have a beautiful name. Emma Dawn. I love that.
I don’t suppose you had enough time to ask about bee pollen yet. That will be your assignment for next time.
I do have a little time to talk about about how your magic works. There is so much that you can do that you don’t know about. Here is the first rule about your magic: You don’t even have to believe that you can do something. To use your magic, all you have to do is to try. Isn’t that amazing? Sometimes believing is hard to do. But trying is easy. Remember when you were afraid to go sledding? You didn’t think you could do it. All you ever had to do was try. It’s like that for lots and lots of things. It’s magic. But you’ll never get to use it until you try to do things that you are a little afraid of doing—like riding a bike, or downhill skiing or roller skating. You don’t even have to believe. All you you have to do is try.
Just one more word about your magic. Don’t go trying to fly out your window or anything like that. Just remember, if your parents say you can do it, you really can! Whether you think so or not.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy
Dear Emma,
It sure has been a busy year for you and me. This is your seventh tooth already.
Emma, do you know what a Golden Tooth is? No, it has nothing to do with the color. Have you ever heard of a Golden Birthday? That happens when the date of the month is the same as the age that you are turning. So, for instance, if somebody has a birthday on September 10th, their Golden Birthday would happen when they turn 10 years old.
Get it?
Well, a Golden Tooth is very similar to a Golden Birthday. It is created when the number of the tooth that is lost matches the age of the child that loses it.
This is your Golden Tooth! Congratulations. It is very special. And you guessed it, Golden Teeth have a very unique type of magic hidden deeply inside of them. I work with them very differently than all the other teeth I get.
Sometimes one child can give me more than one Golden Tooth. Can you figure out how that might happen? It is possible that you could give me two Golden Teeth. Considering the rate that you are losing teeth this year, it probably won’t happen. But it is possible. Not probable, but possible. I don’t think anybody has ever given me three Golden Teeth.
I really love your teeth, Emma. You are such a wonderful kid. You are growing into a very loving, caring, and patient girl. I can see absolutely amazing, fantastic, and exciting things in your future! Enjoy every minute you can today. After all, you are only a kid once.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy
