Is your idea simple enough that a five year old could understand it?

November 30, 2005 3:39 PM

Every year I return to my alma matter, Green Trails Elementary School, to speak at their annual Book Fair. For an entire week they bring in local authors, athletes and educators to talk about the importance of reading and writing.

It was a riot. First I gave all the kids nametags. Then I read one of my favorite children’s books, Yay, You. I also spent some time talking about how I wrote my own books, and closed the session by letting the kindergarteners ask questions. Now, most of the kids forgot their questions by the time I called on them. Which was adorable. But one student named Daniel asked, “Scott, do you wear your nametag in the shower?”

I just grinned as I thought about my new tattoo. But alas, it was not appropriate to show it to the kids. So I just smiled and said, “Yes I do.”

The entire class busted out laughing! It was priceless. And you gotta wonder if the kids knew that I was serious.

Anyway, the next day I received an email from one of the students’ fathers. It read:

“My youngest son, Daniel, came home from kindergarten class and said that he wanted to wear his ‘Hello, My Name is Daniel’ nametag in the shower. When I told him it would probably wash off, we settled for wearing it to bed on his PJ’s. We then went to your web site and viewed the video clip, and he said, ‘That’s him. He told us how he wore a nametag to make people friendlier and he writes books and gives speeches! He’s cool.’