Science.

Warning: This post is graphic. You may want to think twice before reading if you’re close to eating, eating, or just finished eating. You’ve been warned… proceed with caution.

Today it finally happened. During calendar, I was helping a friend and turned to the class. I saw, not one, not two, but three friends with their fingers up their nose... one had one finger up each nostril. Enough was enough… I had to take action. We had to have… the talk.

I interrupted our calendar time for some ‘science’ as I called it. It’s cold and flu season and anything to keep the germs to a minimum is helpful. We had to talk about… boogers.

“Boys and girls, I want to talk to you about sticking your fingers in your nose,” I began.

This really got their attention. A few of the boys looked thrilled their teacher was talking about nose picking.

“You may not know this, but there are tiny little hairs inside your nose,” I continued.

Let me tell you, if you want to get a group of five-year-olds’ attention, start talking about the inside of their noses. They had hit pay dirt... it only got better.

“Those tiny little hairs catch dirt when you breathe in through your nose… when enough dirt gathers, it turns into…” I hesitated…

I didn’t really want to say ‘booger’ or ‘snot’ but what is the medical term? Turns out there is. Rhinolith. Did you know that? Neither did I and without time luxury of Wikipedia at that moment, I had to just say it… booger.

Nobody snickered or laughed. My tone was serious. This was science after all!

“With all the snow and cold we’ve had lately and friends wanting to stay healthy, keeping your fingers out of your nose is very important… all right, back to calendar!” I finished.

It wasn’t pretty or fun, but it had to be done.