Just Too Cute

We have these two kids in the Cedar Rapids TKD class I teach.

They're good friends & often like working with each other in class. Normally, this would cause problems but these two children are not like most preoccupied youngsters in a martial arts class.

Laural & Annie are two young kids (best guess: 8 & 10 respectively) who have always shown a little more enthusiasm & effort than the other children in the school. Now, I don't think it's anything unusual for a girl to have more focus than a boy. Let's face it: even in the pre-pubescent stage of our lives, we boys are more easily distracted than Rosie O'Donnell at an RNC convention hearing someone yell, "Free Ho-hos"! What is different about these two is when they work together, they WORK together.

For you parents & teachers out there who see nothing but horrible possibilities stemming from the hi jinks of two young girls, let me lay your fears to rest. These two, who missed class for separate, unfortunate circumstances, actually asked me to have more time to work on their forms!

This is the equivalent of a young daughter walking up her parents & asking for more time to do math homework, eat vegetables, etc. Shocking doesn't quite cover it.

Soooo, I left them to their own devices & handled the rest of class. Every now & then I'd look over & see them, sure enough, hard at work on their forms. I can only remember thinking how impressive it was that I could leave two kids alone & see them dedicated to exactly the task they set out to do.

We went through the rest of class & lined up to bow out. That's when I decided to use their good example & subtly (is that a word?) let the class know how impressed I was that these two studious young ladies had thrown all this effort into learning their forms to get ready for junior black belt. Here's how it went:

Me: "Laural, how did yours & Annie's forms go?"

Laural: "They went really well, sir."

::Bless her heart, she even said "sir" like she's supposed to!::

Me: "So, how far did the two of you get?"

(To explain, we have 1 form per belt & two for their belt level. They have 11 forms to do for their next belt. Each has a name. Laural did not use the name.)

Laural: (Smiles. Raises hands to imitate start of her highest form) "Uh, we got to this one, sir."


I tell you right now, that kid looked as cute as Shirley Temple right then. She could have told me she slashed my tires & I'd still be thinking "Awwww" that's just too cute!