Each One, Teach One

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of speaking to a class of second graders about my pencil-sharpening business. These kids GOT IT. They UNDERSTAND what I am DOING.

I showed them photos of antique pencil sharpeners in my book:

We reviewed the parts of a pencil:

I even let them look at some of the sharpeners in my toolkit!

Overall it was a very nice visit. The only thing that made me mad was when one of the kids asked how much I charge per pencil; I said, “How much do you think I charge?” and one kid yelled, “Five dollars” and I made a pained noise. Then another kid said “One dollar?” and then some wiseacre said “twenty-five cents?” I raised my voice over the din and said, “FIFTEEN DOLLARS PER PENCIL!”

I sharpened a pencil for the class and bagged the shavings and told them to charge other classes a quarter to look at it and to send me the money every Friday.