Little Tommy

Little Tommy was doing very poorly in math. His parents tried everything…tutors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to improve Tommy’s grades just wasn’t working. As a last ditch effort, they enrolled Tommy in the local Catholic School.

After Tommy’s first day at the new school, he came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t even kiss his mother hello, but walked straight to his room and started studying. Books and paper were soon spread out all over the room with Tommy hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner, and to her shock, the minute he was done, he marched right back to his room without a word and started hitting the books as hard as before.

This went on day after day while his mother tried to understand what was making the difference. Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He placed it quietly on the table and walked directly to his room to hit the books again. With great curiosity, Tommy’s mom opened the report card, and to her delight little Tommy got an A+ in math!

She had to know why the Catholic School had made such a difference, so she went to Tommy’s room. “So, what was it? Was it the nuns?” she asked.

Little Tommy kept his eyes on the ground and shook his head “No.” “Was it the books… the discipline, the structure, the uniforms?”

Little Tommy again shook his head “No”. “Then what was it?” Little Tommy looked at her, with a fearful expression on his face, and finally answered. “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t fooling around.”