5-year-old superheros

lately, my KBR class, which consists of 5 boys and 2 girls at the tender age of 5, have been reminding me of jerry seinfeld stand-up routine that i've listened to frequently. in this routine, he talks about the differences between the ways that men and women think. he observes that all men see themselves as like a low-level superhero. "batman, superman, these aren't fantasies, these are options," he clarifies.

this quote really hits close to home when your kindergarden boys start to create alter egos for themselves. for the purposes of classroom management, i write the names of all my students on the board to track their stars earned for good behavior, and warnings for poor. then one day jeremy decided that he no longer wanted to be jeremy, he wanted to be "Zopemy." king started to sign his papers as "King Bat Man King" and then all the boys wanted the asian cartoon superhero "Ben 10" tagged on to the end of their names.

from there they just got even more creative. Benjamin wants to be referred to as "Jenjamin" and he often does this thing that looks and sounds like wolverine's blades are sliding out of his wrists and he's gonna come after you with 'em. so my perfect little doll benjamin has his alter ego identity. baby-faced Ryan got really into vampires during halloween and wanted to be refered to as " Vampire Ryan." he would do this cool thing that looked like he was going to lunge at you with his fangs.

Jeremy, still an independent spirit with a ceaseless mind, creates new names almost daily. he has been known as "Keremy", "Zopemy", "Jeremy Ben 10", "Jeremy Vampire Jer", "Jeremy Ben 10 L", "Jeremy Army Tricks" ... whatever he can think of. he is pretty insistent that i call upon him during class by this name too.

King's superhero identity remains my favorite. he got it through combing through one of the class phoenics textbooks while he was supposed to be following along the class. he excitedly asked me to change his name to "Sting."

oh, King. if only you could appreciate how truely awesome that is on so many levels.

love, miss megan.