Once upon a time there were three teachers who stepped into a class of three- and four-year olds. They were so excited to teach dance to these little ones and the little ones were eager to learn. The kids came to class with their ballet shoes on and their laces tucked in. The teachers were so happy! The students put their bags under the bench and started dancing. Halfway through the class it was time to get their tap shoes on. The students ran over to the bench and picked up their dance bags and brought them back to their numbers...all except Sally, Susie and Sara. One of the teachers looked under the bench, and there were three matching dance bags. Uh Oh! Whose was whose. The teachers looked inside the bags for a name...NO NAME! Surely the white tap shoes that EVERYBODY wears for tap class that all look the same would have a name in them. No, not bag #1, not in bag #2, not even bag #3! Now the teachers start sizing up shoes for matching feet like the prince did in Cinderella, and they even resort to asking these 3 and 4 year olds, "Does this look like your shoe?" During all of this confusion, one of the other kids forgot to put her ballet shoes in her bag as soon as she took it off. So one of the teachers picks it up and looks inside, and guess what? ...NO NAME! After finally figuring out the dance bag and tap shoe dilemma, now the teachers are searching other dance bags for the lonely ballet shoe, (that all look the same too!) ...all while helping students put on thier tap shoes so they can eventually tap. "Found it!" one of the teachers calls out, so that the search is over and all bags are under the bench and out of the way for tap. Of course the three matching bags have been strategically placed so that when class is over they're easy to identify....the class is almost over! Luckily, there's a few minutes left to do a tap follow-along after which everybody leaves the studio with all of thier shoes. I guess you could say we all lived "happily ever after." However, dance class is for learning and dancing, not for solving mysteries. So please put names on the inside of all shoes and bags so then we can all live,
"happily and dancingly ever after!"
