“Thank you for teaching me”

Occasionally on our way to school my kindergarten-age daughter and I will bring along a small trash bag and a glove and pick up litter along our two block walk. One morning a man in a passing car shouted to us as he passed “Thank you for teaching me!”.

This tiny exchange stayed my daughter — and myself if I’m honest — for months. Many mornings as we walked to school she would bring it up with the utmost pride. “Remember when that man said ‘thank you for teaching me’!”.