What do you mean Pluto's not a planet?

A few days back I found myself in a classroom with the task of introducing the letter U to my kindergarten group. The job consisted of me reading the "U" book that had a boy in his underwear (get it "u" for underwear) as the star which caused the kids to seize with fits of giggles. After the book they called out words that they thought started with "U", and it was my job to write them on the poster board and draw a picture so that they would know what the word actually said.

Now, obviously, I'm not an artist. My drawing skills are mediocre at best, but to elementary aged kids I might as well be Da Vinci himself. They go nuts whenever I draw things on the board. Just this Thursday I was in a third grade class and had to draw a scene that to an adult eye would have looked like a really pitiful attempt at a landscape, but it was all I could do to calm the group from all their shouting, "PLEASE Mrs. Cox, PLEASE autograph this, I want to take it home!!!!" "OH MY GOSH this is the best drawing I have ever seen in my ENTIRE LIFE!" Not being very familiar with eight year olds, I assumed, as anyone would, that they were mocking me until I saw that a couple of them were actually tearing up with excitement and no one was laughing. I swallowed my own laughter at their enthusiasm and brought the class back to order stopping briefly to treasure the moment of artistic praise that I know would never come again by anyone over the age of 9.  So after all the accolades, I was pretty proud of my pint sized illustration of the letter U, and so I took a picture to show Joel my masterpiece.  When he got home I had him look it over, expecting some snide remark about this being my days work versus his day of grading essays, but no such remark came.

Instead, after a few moments of quiet he finally said, "This is great, but if this is our universe, where is the other planet?"

Fully prepared for this I said, "Oh, they're all there. Don't you remember?  Pluto's not a planet anymore."

To which he patiently replied. "Yes, but you only have seven and there should still be eight."

Which lead me directly to sing my trusty planets song (ala 2nd grade, Mrs. Crawford's class. Catherine can back me up on this. She watched the sing-a-long science videos too) aloud to check: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Pancakes!...See they're all there minus the pancakes."

"Nope. Where's Neptune?"

Neptune? Neptune! What in the heck is the point of a song to memorize the planets if you're going to leave one out. Thanks a lot Mrs. Crawford. Ok, I can't even joke about that. Mrs. Crawford was amazing; but seriously, consider revising the planet song.

More likely explanation: Mrs. Crawford taught the song with Neptune in it and this is the first sign that I am, in fact, loosing my marbles.  The shining light is that now an entire class of kindergartners sings the song the wrong way just like I do. Better luck next time, Neptune.