by Athanasia Diamantopoulou

 

"I just want to be able to read my pupils' minds!"

Katarina opened her eyes. She had been dreaming. In her dream she was explaining the lesson but her students had a dreamy look, like someone had put a spell on their eyes. Then she had heard a fluttering and, turning around, she had seen a tiny creature hanging upside down from the ceiling.

"Hi! I am a lesson fairy. They call me Lessonia."
"What? There are no such things as fairies! Flying into people' s lessons and talking!"
"But I am here, aren't I?" Lessonia replied, blinking her eyes playfully.
"I must be dreaming," Katarina thought to herself. "Or it must be one of the pupils' pranks!"
"No, you are neither dreaming nor this is a prank of any kind" answered the fairy reading Katarina's thoughts.
Katarina was startled! "How do you know my thoughts? Do you read people's minds?"
"Yes. That’ s what I do during lessons: I read your minds."
"You mean that you read the pupils' minds, too?" asked Katarina.
"Of course!”
Katarina was speechless. She wanted more proof that all this was real.
"Ok, tell me what Anna, this little girl at the front desk, is thinking right now!"

"She’s dreaming about the music lesson afterwards, as music is her favourite subject. That boy over there is daydreaming about his new puppy; that other boy is anxious to meet his cousins whom he hasn’ t seen for a long time; and that girl at the back is feeling sad because someone has broken her doll during the break.”

Katarina was at a loss!

“You see,” the little mind-reading fairy went on, "I happened to be flying outside your classroom and decided to pop in! Then I read the pupils' minds and no one was really paying attention to your wonderful lesson! That’s when I decided to put a spell on their eyes to make them daydream, since this is what most of them had been doing! Can' t you see the dreamy look in their eyes?"

Lessonia stopped to think for a moment. "Listen!" she said. "Children are like that, daydreamers. If only you teachers knew how to read your pupils’ minds and knew where to stop!... Wouldn’ t you like to be able to read your pupils minds? Because I can arrange that..."
Katarina didn't  need any time to think. "Yes!" she shouted "I just want to be able to read my pupils' minds!"

It was then that she woke up. It took her a while to realize that she had been dreaming as the dream was so vivid! She looked at her watch and it was time for her to get up and go to work.

That day was one she will never forget. While Katarina was entering the classroom, little Anna gave her a folded piece of paper, “a present”. Katarina promised to open it at the end of the lesson. Then she started teaching but a funny thing happened. Whenever she was looking at her pupils’ eyes, it was as though she could read their minds! Somehow she knew that George had a wonderful time playing with his puppy and Maria's dad had fixed her broken doll; Tom had seen his cousins after a long time and they had enjoyed themselves together; and little Anna had realized that she had been unfair to her teacher not paying attention to the lesson. That’s why she had drawn her a picture as a present.

"Anna," Katarina said smiling, "let’ s open your present now! What have you drawn?"
"Oh, it s a picture of you, Miss!"
What a big surprise was waiting for Katarina when she unfolded little Anna's picture! On that white piece of paper there was the drawing of a tiny winged fairy exactly like the one in her dream! With two words written underneath:

"My teacher"

 

 

 

 

Longer version of the same story