Potato - Tomato

“Potato – Potahto.   Tomato – Tomahto.   Let’s call the whole thing off!”  That’s what Louie Armstrong famously crooned years ago.  And so did little Joey on this particular morning in reading class.  He wanted to call the whole thing OFF.

You see, ‘Joey’ had been working on a Double-Bubble Map with his classmate, ‘Fred’, with the help of their reading teacher.  If you don’t know what a Double-Bubble is, imagine an old-fashioned Venn Diagram in which you are comparing two different ideas. The commonalities are written in the center where the circles over-lap and the differences are put in the outer circles.  Except this kind has a whole bunch of bubbles.

On the previous day Joey and Fred had started a D.B. Map about their own personal likes and dislikes.  They were reviewing the things they had written.  Joey had put the color green on his side, and Fred had blue on his.  Many of the items were food and games, regular kid stuff.

Suddenly an argument erupted.  “We need to move tomatoes out of the common bubble!” Joey insisted.  Fred strongly disagreed.  Mrs. K, their reading teacher came over to help settle the dispute.  Joey was adamant that they move tomatoes out and into their own, separate bubbles.

“Do you like tomatoes, Joey?” she asked.  He nodded.  “Do you like tomatoes, Fred?” she inquired of the other boy.  He also nodded in agreement. “If you both like tomatoes, then it belongs in the common bubble, right?”

Getting more agitated, Joey raised his voice, “But, you don’t understand.  We like different KINDS of tomatoes!”

A little confused, Mrs. K asked, “Well, if they’re both tomatoes, isn’t that okay?”

“NO!” Joey insisted.  “Fred likes the RED kind of tomatoes, and I like the GREY kind of tomatoes!”

“What kinds of tomatoes are grey?” the teacher wondered.

In an exasperated voice he answered, “The GREY tomatoes that they make French fries out of!”

“Oh.  Okay.  Let me clarify something for you,” she began.

Argument settled, mystery solved.  Words can be pretty tricky when you’re seven years old.  As a teacher, it’s times like this that make working with little people so worthwhile.