A complement for you... and a complement for you.. and you... and you....

I had a funny little 3rd grader at my table last week at school. He has dark hair, a little round face and a thoughtful, quirky way about him. All week he would write me little notes on his worksheets and surreptitiously slide them over in front of me until I would write or verbalize a comment back...

While it did not feel wholly insincere, it did feel studied....experimental.....

"I like your hair color"

Thank you

"I like the color of your shirt"

Thank you

"You're nice"

Thank you

"Thank you for helping me with my work"

Your welcome

At one point he also tore off pieces of his worksheet and wrote similar complements and quietly sidled off to other tables and dropped them in front of the teachers there while I was focused on helping another student. He would slide silently into his seat just as I would look to see what he was up to. He'd smile serenely at me as I'd look at him sternly and admonish him to get back to his subtraction.

By Friday the other children at my table were beginning to notice. One asked me what he was doing and I responded that he was writing me a note. He looked confused and said to the note-writer "why are you doing that?"

The boy responded in an airy, nonchalant voice "I'm complementing the teachers. I like to give little complements"

I had to suppress a giggle because at that moment I pictured him like this:

only shorter