Jenny's Fun Tips: Knife-handling

My sister Jenny was a creative, caring, and absurdly funny teacher. She ran an afterschool program at Seven Hills School. I've collected some of her techniques and activities and will publish a series of them here.

One day Jenny was chopping an enormous hunk of cheddar cheese for snack time. As she sliced away, she mis-aimed and cut her finger. In her anger at the pain searing through her finger, she threw the knife across the kitchen. Upon reflection, she realized that throwing the knife did not solve the problem and, in fact, had the potential of creating larger problems. Fortunately, none of her students were in the room at the time.

Note: This story contains a tip-within-a-tip. The first tip: Don't throw knives. The second tip: When working with children, it is better to employ the phrase "chopping an enormous hunk of cheddar cheese" rather than the phrase "cutting the cheese".