My 13-year-old daughter Lisa remembers birthdays, makes people cards when they are sick, and sends encouraging notes written in colored pens in her neat, artistic hand. One day I got a call from her principal, "I called to tell you that in 20 years of teaching I have seen nothing like what Lisa did today", he said I held my breath again as I thought, my Lisa? My sweet daughter? She must be the wrong kid. What could she have done? My silence made him go on. "I've never seen a student do anything so nice for anyone who needed it more." "What did she do?" I asked. He explained to me about the cupcakes  . When Lisa came home from school that afternoon, I told her the principal from her school had phoned me. "Yeah", she answered, "I got called out of math class to go to his office. Everyone thought I was in trouble, but he just wanted to know what was going on at lunch." Lisa and Ashley had sat with Jordan, a boy who is in special classes. They talked about birthdays, and Lisa asked Jordan when his birthday was. He told her it was coming up but that he lives in a group home and they don't celebrate birthdays there. "I remembered his birthday was today, so I made the cupcakes yesterday," Lisa explained. "Ashley bought a two-liter bottle of soda and some birthday cups, plates, and napkins   left over from her little brother's party, and we got some other kids together at lunch today to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jordan." "The principal wanted to know why they were having a birthday party for Jordan at school. When they told him, he just shook his head, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes," Lisa told me. "Finally, he said he was going to tell my parents that I wasn't in trouble, he was proud of what I did, and I could go back to math class." How different my daughter was from me. Better, in fact! I wouldn't have ever known how to help out disadvantaged kids like that. But my wise daughter knew how-- all it took was cupcakes and adventurous  , independent  , kind spirit. What can we know from the school principal's phone call?
Birthday parties are usually not allowed at the school. The principal was angry with Lisa and her friends. Jordan was in the same class as Lisa. The students thought Lisa was a lot of trouble.