The Pursuit of "Hoppyness"...

I started substitute teaching this year. It's been over 15 years since I have been in a classroom, and my, my things have changed.
On this one particular morning, I was leaving the office and headed through the maze of classrooms to find my daily dose of youth. As I was strolling, I noticed a Mom dropping her daughter off at the front of the building. The daughter was hugging her Mom and Mom was saying something with a smile. As the little girl closed the car door she began hopping across the courtyard. Grinning from ear to ear, and singing a song, it was pure joy to see. Within a minute, I heard a voice from across the yard "You need to walk in the halls. Stop hopping." Ugh, I shuttered before the little girl did. No malice to the adult who probably was told to keep the students in line and walking, but ugh none the less.
That moment, that small moment of pure bliss touched my heart more than I could imagine. I had forgotten just how great it was to hop. I began to think that if we encouraged our students to hop more we might actually achieve No Child Left Behind and work on the obesity epidemic at the same time. A scathingly brilliant idea. And I began hopping to my room.