"Projects"

The young lady got on the bus carrying a shoe box. I said, "Good morning, you got a suprise for us in that box?" She smiled and replied, "No, it's for a project that we have to do in class". She then poceeded to go sit down. As she went down the aisle a second grader that had been listening to the conversation said, "Mr. Brandon, is it true that in the third grade that you get to do projects?" I replied in the affirmative and he said, "Wow, that will be fun I can't wait". Then there was a rather long pause followed by, "Now what is a project?" He didn't sound quite as excited after I explained that a project required work. The word work often takes the shine off the apple.