Elly was a curious eight-year-old Korean girl, one of the brightest in my Kindergarten class. (Remember that these students are exceptionally bright. I think gifted and talented is the proper term, but I like to refer to my students as baby geniuses.) She was reading a storybook with one of her classmates, another extremely bright little boy whom we call Daniel. Daniel loves stag beetles and he once told me that some day he wants to be an entomologist. He actually said the word "entomologist," and I knew this was 'a scientist who studies insects' because in my spare time I was studying vocabulary words in preparation for a graduate school entrance exam. Elly and Daniel were reading a storybook. I can't remember the title, but that doesn't matter.
Pigtails dangled from either sides of her head as she confidently raised her hand to ask me, "Teacher, what is a dister?"
"Dister? That's not a word. Show me the story," I replied. I was convinced she had to be pronouncing the word incorrectly, which is unusual for Elly because she reads at a fifth grader's level. Last week she brought in the new Harry Potter book for show and tell when she summarized the plot to her classmates.
Instead of bringing the storybook to me, Elly spelled "dister."
"It says, D, R, period."
Doctor. Let's not forget that Dr. and Mr. are rhyming words.
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