One of my favorite three-year-olds (I know, I love them all the same, blah blah blah) recently had to leave our preschool program. Last week, before this child's departure, the little boy that would take her spot and his mom and dad came to visit the school. When they dropped by my classroom I didn't have a class going on, so I got the opportunity to talk to him a little. He was very shy and a little intimidated by his surroundings, so to try and get him excited about coming to school I told him all about our upcoming Christmas program and how everyone in his class, including him, was going to get to be a shepherd. He just stared at me with trepidation and retreated further back to the shelter of his parents. Our Preschool Director continued to tell him about the program and all the songs that he would get to sing, and ended with "Would you like that?"

He paused for a minute and then replied, "I don't wanna be a shepherd."

Okay. That's fine. It didn't phase me much because most of my students already said they'd rather be Optimus Prime or a princess. So the family continued their tour and I went on about my day.

The next morning at carpool our director approached me to discuss the family's visit from the previous day. She had tried to talk to the boy one more time about how fun it would be to be a shepherd in the Christmas Program. And finally he told her why he wasn't interested:

"I don't want to take care of the sheep."