the strangeness of a rule

At dinner today, my son declared that he wanted to become a teacher one day. This made me smile since I myself am a teacher.

I asked,  "What will you teach?"

"Lots of things, " he said. "I'll teach Math, how to swim, how to go to the outer space."

I smiled again.

Until he said, "I'll teach all of that to my self."

I raised an eyebrow bewildered . "What do you mean by that? Aren't you going to teach others?"

"No," he continued, "I don't want to teach strangers."

I said, laughingly, "But that's what teaching is about. You get to meet new students and they will be strangers in the beginning."

And of course I was not ready for his answer to that, since he argued, "But mum, you told me to stay away from strangers."

Hmmm, well, at least, for now, he takes that rule to heart.