Chapter 20: "Why Pluto is Blue"

Some of my kids are so adorable, I can't even look crossways at them.

I may have mentioned one of my classes before, the one with five loud and hyper 8ish-year-old boys and one overwhelmed girl. Today we were studying the planets, and one of the listening exercises was to circle, out of three choices, what planet was which color. For instance, the cd said, "Circle the planet that is red," and the choices would be Mars, Earth, and Neptune. Easy enough exercise, except that all of our books are pirated (bet you didn't know you could pirate books ^.^) and in black and white. And I don't get a teacher's edition. I just have to listen and memorize the answers, then tell them in the end.

But the answers weren't given, of course. You just look at the giant (colored) picture of the solar system, right?

I don't know, maybe I should remember what all the planets' colors are. But darnitall, I just remember about 3. And none of them are the "blue" planet, which could have been (according to the problem) Pluto, Neptune, or Venus.

Teacher thinks:
Hmmm. Well, I thought Pluto was purple. But I can't remember, it's been too long since I saw that episode of Magic Schoolbus. Neptune could be blue, since Neptune is a sea kind of theme from Greek mythology. I'm almost positive that it's not Venus, because on Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus' color was orange. Yes.

Teacher says: "Uh, I don't know. I don't have the answers and my book is in black and white like yours."

Then I hear one of my precocious little boys pipe up from my right, "Oh! Oh! Teacher I know!!" Bless him, he remembers from science class. "It's Pluto!! It's Pluto. Because because because Sun is here (points to far right side of page) and Pluto is faaaaaaaar over here (points to far left). So it is blue."


T_T *wipes away tears*

Yes, my child. Pluto is the blue planet because it is farthest from the sun.

On a side note, I saw a t-shirt with this logo today:
http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=mickey-burn-leader.jpg&category=Clothing&date=2006-12-09

If I see it for sale anywhere, I will definitely buy it.