Saturday, February 7, 2009

Ms. F, are you married? Part 2

Part 1 here.

I relate well to Ruben, a smart, bespectacled 13-year-old who has little patience for the laziness or shennanigans of his classmates. He's both serious and funny. The other kids aren't always fond of Ruben, but I think that Ruben and I get each other.

On Friday, I was gesturing to make a point when Ruben noticed my wedding rings. "Ms. F__________, are you married?" he asked.

"Yes."

"What was your maiden name?" he asked.

"My maiden name was F______________."

"No, no, I mean, what was your name before you got married?"

"F_________________," I replied, becoming amused.

Ruben looked confused for a second, and then, eyes wide, he asked, "Wait! You and your husband had the same name?"

"No," I replied, trying not to look too amused.

"I didn't know you could do that!" he exclaimed.

Then--this is why I love this kid: "Why didn't he take your name?"

"I don't know, Ruben. I don't know."

4 comments:

Narya said...

HAH! I love that kid!

kStyle said...

Today, I shared a "teacher secret" with the class, namely that tests are not just to give a grade, but also to determine what we need to go over again. Ruben (weirdly) replied, "That's not a secret! A secret, is like, if you wear pink underwear."

I didn't reply to that one.

Narya said...

Sounds like he's unclear on the difference between "secret" and "private."

kStyle said...

True, true.