As a bus driver, I have learned some fantastic and exciting things spoken by the kids behind me. The most recent conversation between two students might have caused irreparable harm to the belief in Santa Claus.
I drive to three schools. All three schools share the bus, and all three schools are loaded on the bus together, so there is a lot of intermingling between the groups. One of the schools is Catholic. A boy in grade three gets on the seasonally appropriate topic of Santa and expresses his opinion.
First, he is rather eloquent in his arguments, and some of what he says is from quite a bit of thought and perspective. He claims that no Christian can believe in Santa Claus. He is a public school student speaking to a Catholic school student. Even though religion is no longer taught in public schools, his understanding of the topic is impressive.
He argued that Santa is, in fact, a god. Because he is a god, it would be wrong to believe in Santa since Christians only have one god. His proof that he is a god is that he is able to travel great distances with incredible speed. Santa is able to know magically if someone is good or bad. And this, I thought, was rather humorous; he is able to enter homes that do not even have a chimney.
I could not see clearly who this boy was talking to, but I did see another boy who was captivated by the debate, and this youngster’s face slowly transformed into one of great sorrow. Sadly, I came to the realization that this child had just learned the truth about St. Nick.
I encountered an impressively bright display of reasoning on a topic not taught in schools. The first boy is clearly intelligent, and seeing him grow and use his God-given talent will be something to look forward to. On the other hand, I felt the devastation of the second, younger boy discovering the truth that Santa does not exist. Poor kid.
The things I hear on the bus.
