Heart Warming Moment

The Book

This week my class was reading a story called "Leah's Pony". Leah's family lives on a farm during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl kills of most of their crops. After borrowing money from the bank to reseed and failing to pay the bank back, Leah's family decides to have an auction to raise money. Leah is devastated when she learns her father will sell the tractor, and she decides to sell her beloved pony in hopes of buying the tractor herself at the auction so her family can keep it. At the auction, Leah bravely bids one dollar for the tractor. The rest of the people at the auction are so moved by the hope of a child that they allow her to win the tractor with a bid of 1 dollar. The neighbors treat the rest of the auction as a penny auction and give all the items back to the family. To make endings even happier, Leah is given her pony back as well with a note that says, "These hard times won't last forever".

My Class

As a unit culmination, we had an auction in our class today. To prepare, I had the kids make advertisement posters for each auction item; they had to use facts and opinions to advertise the items. Tim, a very child-like and emotional student in my class, grew very attached to a light up pen. He was the only student to select the pen for his advertisement, and he was set on winning it at our auction today. You could see the nervousness in his eyes, as he very vocally announced he only had 1 grabber, and he wasn't sure if that would be enough. His heart was set on that pen though, and his limited number of grabbers didn't matter to him. It was already as good as his.

Some of my students came up to me while they were making their posters and told me they had an idea. They told me they wanted to make sure Tim got that pen even though he only had one grabber. They said it could be just like Leah in the story-when Tim bid his one grabber, everyone else should sit silently, not bidding, rather letting him win his prize because his need was so great. I was moved, and watched as these students quietly informed the rest of the class about the plan, keeping it a secret from Tim, who sat unknowingly, admiring that pen that he hoped would be his.

The Auction

As the auction proceeded today, I excitedly moved on to the pen. I was dying to see how the kids' plan would go! As I held up the pen, I noticed Tim on the edge of his seat, gritting his teeth and clutching his 1 grabber as tightly as possible. As soon as I announced bidding open for 1 grabber, Tim's hand shot up in the air, and the rest of the class sat resolutely in their seats, huge smiles on their faces as they refused to bid just so Tim could win his prize.

A huge smile was about to erupt on my face when 3 students also raised their hands to bid one grabber. I faltered, the rest of the class audibly gasped, and Tim's eyes began to water. I hesitantly opened the bidding to 2 grabbers, and inwardly groaned as 2 students kept their hands up to bid-and Tim's hand, grasping that measly grabber, slowly sank back to his desk. He began to cry, and the rest of the class tried to nudge those 2 bidders to put their hands down. Apparently, they didn't get the message the day before, because they had no idea what the "plan" was.

At this point, I rationally thought to myself, "its just a classroom auction for grabbers and dollar store prizes-this isn't a big deal". But looking at Tim's face made me realize-for him it is. Just as I was trying to figure out if I should step in at all, my 3rd graders proved to me that is hope left in the world.

Without heckling the 2 bidders, and without saying a word, 3 students stood up and handed Tim some of their grabbers. Within moments, 8 other kids had handed him grabbers, with comments of "Take them Tim-you can do it! You can win it!" I watched in amazement, as grabbers are precious commodities in my classroom and are not usually given away so freely. I watched as Tim's face went from despair to awe. Tim is not the most popular child in the class and struggles to make friends. In this moment though-it didn't matter. My kids knew how much he wanted that pen and they were going to make sure he got it.

Heart Warming Moment

Once everyone calmed down, I opened the bidding back up at 2 grabbers. Tim's handful of grabbers shot into the air as well as the hands of the 2 other students who had bid before. The bidding got up to 20 grabbers before the other 2 bidders caught on and stoped bidding, even though they both had well more than 20 grabbers. Tim's hand was the only one up in the air.

Genuinely moved, I announced in a quiet voice, "And the winning bid of 20 grabbers goes to Tim." The class went wild, cheers for Tim filled the air, and in that moment, no one in the world was flying higher than Tim. He held that pen for the rest of the day and even had enough donated grabbers left to buy something from the grab bag at the end of the afternoon. He left that day with a group of buddies around him, asking to see how his new pen worked and complimenting him on winning such a great prize.

One of my students told me in passing that she had given Tim all 19 of her grabbers. I told her how nice that was of her and asked her why she did it. She said, "I just thought Tim needed them more than me-I didn't really need any of those things any way. Tim really needed that pen and I wanted to help him. I'll get more grabbers next week."

Good news world: you have hope because I have students who are capable of seeing a need and filling it. They are not perfect, but there is hope. And for that, I am grateful.