Joe's First Field Trip--and What We Come To Know

Observant readers will have noted from a previous post that Joe went on his first ever field trip on Friday.  This event occasioned another: his first ever ride on a school bus.  (Since White House is only a few blocks from school, he's not allowed to take the bus.)  Joe and his class went to the Westwood Nature Center, where they made apple cider and went on a leaf hike.  Joe said he sat by the window on both the ride to and from Westwood, and that he sat by Miles on the way there, and Aaron on the way back.

It's interesting what one learns about Joe's days, and what one does not.  A lot depends on what questions one poses.  They need to be specific; broad questions will get you nowhere.  But in order to as specific questions, of course, one needs some background in the details--the sort of thing that comes from specific questions.

For example, yesterday, at Joe's soccer game, Julie and Ted realized that Joe knows his teammate Benjamin, or Ben, from school.  In confirming this fact, Julie asked Joe, "Do you know Benjamin from school?"  To which Joe, replied, "No."  Julie kept quit, waiting for it, and Joe said, "That's Ben."

Ben's dad introduced himself to Julie on her way off the field after the game.  Ben is in the other full-day kindergarten class.  Apparently Ben came home one day and announced that a kid at school was on his soccer team; he (Ben) had met him (Joe) in the hallway.  Because we are Joe Fans, and we know that you are also Joe Fans, we will also shamelessly report that Ben's dad then said that he'd asked Ben if Joe was a good guy and Ben said, "Dad, he's a GREAT guy!"

So now we can ask about Ben.  But not Benjamin.  There's no one named Benjamin in kindergarten.