My fifth-grade student who goes by the English nickname Allen wrote an imaginary letter of condolence to my Minneapolitan rainbow monkey. Below, I cut-and-paste verbatim from his essay (which he sent to me via email).
To,Monkey
Hi, Monkey.Iheard that you are in the hospital.Because you cut your brain yourself. So you can only use one fourth of your brain. I hope you die. I think you can't read this letter. Because you don't have any reading skills now. Oh My God!!!!. I think it's very terrible thing. But you cannot escape from reality. I think it will be the last thing that I say to you. Good Bye~~~~~~~Monkey
Although most of the writing is mediocre, his perfect use of the phrase "But you cannot escape from reality" was striking and impressed me a great deal, from a fifth grader. I asked him if he had read it or heard it somewhere, but he refused to elaborate. Regardless, he got the pragmatics correct with it.
[daily log: walking, 6km]