“You have to start writing neatly”, I admonished my fourth
grader. “Or they wouldn’t let you start using a pen next term.”
“Oh good”, he exclaimed. “I don’t want to write with a pen. What
if I make a mistake- how will I rub it out?”
“When you start using a pen”, his younger brother piped up, “you
will stop making mistakes. Big people don’t make mistakes, do they?”
Did he realize how profound his statement was? The day you
stop admitting to your mistakes, isn’t that the day you stop growing? I wish we
could all use pencils forever.
