My friend John told me this story.
His son is very clever. When he wants something, he waits until John is on the phone before asking. That way, John is more likely to just sort of surrender and say yes so he can focus on his phone conversation.
Smart boy.
Last week, the boy asked John if he could have some ice cream. Distracted, John said yes with the warning that he needed to leave some in the container for his brother. John watched he boy gobble down the ice cream with great speed, so he put his phone call on hold for a moment.
“That’s your last bite right there,” John said.
His son looked at him with sadness.
“But dad,” he said, “if I knew this was going to be my last bite, I would have slowed down and enjoyed it.”
* * *
Typically, this is where I would offer a reflection on why the story illuminates something important about education policy. Tonight, however, I’m just going to let the story speak for itself.
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