The Cutting

Fourth Grader RC's FROG

Heard a scuffle in the hallway today.  An awesome student teacher was walking his crew of kinders to PE but the line had turned into a huddled chaos.  "How can I help?" I asked AST.
"These 2 need to go to the office.  They are hurting each other."
One of the dears ran about six feet away and started bawling.  "I want to go to gym!" He wailed.
I quickly sat on the floor next to him and Former Office Mate brought the other dear over while AST walked the proper liners to gym.
"Look pal," I told the dear.  "Don't cry.  We're going to talk this out.  First off though, let's fix your shoes.  They're on the wrong feet.  That can be uncomfortable."  So I started taking the dear's shoes off while he sobbed sadly.  As I dealt with the shoes, I asked the dears, "So you were hitting each other?  Is that what I heard?"
Dear #2 said, "No, we weren't hitting.  We were kicking."
I gasped audibly, for effect.
"And shoving."
"Okay.  Kicking and shoving.  That can be a real problem, guys. How'd this get started?"  Come to find out, Dear #1 tried to cut in line.  Cutting in line is one of the worst transgressions ever committed. This was the second cutting in line event that resulted in blows that I dealt with today. "Dear #1 cut in line, but he was supposed to be way in the back because he starts with R," said Dear #2.
"I was confused.  I made a mistake," said Dear #1.
So FOM and I walked the 2 to gym, in proper line order.  They did great.  No office.  Plenty of time for gym.  And Awesome Student Teacher even came by later and thanked me for the help.  Win, win people. But seriously, if you have a child, please teach that child not to cut in line. If you can.