Kids Still Say the Darnedest Things a Few Years Later

A few years ago, I was teaching a sixth-grader who said funny things in lessons on several occasions. Here's an excerpt from perhaps the funniest exchange we ever had (in this case, he was playing a piece with two flats in it and kept repeatedly missing the E-flat):

ME: Someone kidnapped the E-flat! It's the case of the missing E-flat....
SIXTH-GRADER #2: Who cares? Who cares about flats? Sharps are what matter. The E-flat is like some wannabe off the streets. The F-sharp is the president.

So the same kid came in today with a scale sheet that he'd been given this year. The sheet was not very saxophone-friendly; as you might guess from the conversation above, saxophonists tend to prefer sharps to flats, and this sheet had several of them listed in flat keys, even though they could have been written in sharp keys. That prompted an exchange that referenced the previous one:

KID: I hate flats! Why would anyone write these scales in flats?
ME: Yeah, most saxophonists don't like flats at all, and I know you don't like 'em. Do you remember a few years ago when you said something about E-flat being a wannabe and F-sharp was the president?
KID: Yeah! That's right! Sharps are cool! Sharps are like the really popular kids that are all "gangsta" and everyone wants to hang around them.
ME: (laughs) And flats are what...the chess club?
KID: Exactly! They're like those little nerdy kids that always get picked on.

Again, maybe you had to be there, but I'll say it again: There's rarely a dull moment in my job.

(There are two other funny-kid moments in the post from which I retrieved the original exchange.)