The First Field Trip

The year Zachary started Kindergarten was also the year he started religious classes.  Dave and I agreed before we got married we would raise our children Jewish, since I was the lesser of the religiously apathetic in our interfaith marriage   This was also around the time we had to put our long time pet and family member, Sampson, to sleep.  Explaining death to a 5 year old is not easy.  I told Zach that Sampson went to be with God.  That one statement caused my little boy to ask more questions than he ever had up to this point.  Zach is very inquisitive anyways, but this catapulted him into investigative reporting mode.  "Who is God?  Where does he live?  How can he be everywhere?  Can he see me right now?  Does he watch me go potty?"  You get the idea.  I was stumped.  Since it was so difficult for Dave and I to explain theology to a 5 year old, we joined a congregation that offered religious classes for children from Pre-K up until Bar/Bat Mitzvah.   It was our hope that he would learn more about God, and Judaism and have the strong moral base needed to be successful as an adult.

It just so happened that Zach's first field trip ever would be with his new religious school.  All the classes were going to a local retirement home to visit with the residents and give the children a sense of what volunteerism can do.  The Pre-K and Kindergarten classes were combined and provided light entertainment for the audience.  They sang.  For the most part, the residents were enjoying their company and either tolerating or not hearing the music that was being sung by the 4, 5 and 6 year olds.

One woman in the front row was not as captivated as the others.  It seems she dozed off while listening to the melodic sounds of the sweet angels performing for her.  Zach noticed her, slightly slumped over with her eyes closed.  "OH MY GOD SHE'S DEAD!!"  The next sound anyone would hear was the screaming of 20 children running in all directions, knocking over end tables and running into each other.

I am not sure how they did it, but the teachers managed to corral the children and take them out into the hall to settle down.  They explained that the woman was indeed not dead, but resting.  It took a few minutes to convince the kids they were not performing for a corpse.  After a while they all paraded back into the room and began where they left off.  Needless to say, the woman in the front row was bright-eyed watching every last bit of the performance.

This story was told to me when I went to pick up Zach after they returned from their field trip.  It took the teacher two times as long as it should have to tell me the story because she could not keep herself composed long enough to get out a sentence.  I am going to venture a guess, and say that was the most excitement that place had seen in a while.