I'm an asshole.

At least, that's what one of my students informed me today.

A. (he's in 1st or 2nd grade) was in a timeout on the wall at recess today and he called another student a "stupid head." When one of the other teachers overheard him, she reminded him that we don't call people stupid heads. As she was walking away, he muttered, "Whatever, asshole."

My head snapped up (I was in hearing range). "WHAT did you say?" I demanded, sure that I must have heard incorrectly.

"I said 'asshole,' " he repeated.

Now at that age, kids often use swear words without really knowing what they mean; they're just repeating what they hear at home, in movies, etc. So the first time a child uses a bad word, we first have a little talk with them to see if they even know what they're saying.

"A., do you know what that word even means?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied, "and you guys are all assholes."

"A.," I said firmly, "that is a word we don't EVER use at school, do you understand?" (Yes, he shouldn't use it at all, since he's SEVEN and all, but I'm only responsible for him at school.)

I then calmly turned, walked away and (once I was out of sight) started laughing to myself. I mean, he was so matter-of-fact in the way he simply stated his opinion of us. (The other teachers were biting their lips, too. Is it bad that we were laughing or are you all seeing the humor in this, as well?)

Later on, I was going inside to grab an incident report and the other teacher in question asked me to grab her one, as well.

"Whatever, asshole," I answered under my breath as I walked by. She was still laughing when I came back outside.