eye of the beholder

From today's A.Word.A.Day mailing:

From: Rhana Bazzini
Subject: Words and meanings

I've been meaning to tell this story for ages and am just getting around to it.

Many years ago when I was teaching first grade in a small town in CT. I had an epiphany......I think I can call it that. It was a time when Julie Andrews's movie "Mary Poppins" came out and everyone was fascinated with the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. My first graders just loved to say it. I thought this a great opportunity to introduce new words to the children.

Toward the end of each day when the children were a bit tired and restless I'd put a new word on the board, show then a picture illustrating the word and ask them what they thought it meant. I was introducing the word grotesque with a picture of an angler fish, very grotesque to most people :-) The hands went up with words like ugly, horrible, scary etc. I noticed one of my brightest students sitting at her desk with a very puzzled expression on her face. Cynthia, what's the matter I asked. Well, Mrs Bazzini everyone is saying such mean things about him and I think he's beautiful.

The eye of the beholder. One of those priceless "teacher" moments.