4. Less Is More

4 Less Is More I could hardly sleep that night. I kept thinking about how Mrs. Barr tricked us into learning geography. That makes me so mad! No way I'm gonna fall for that again. The next day, Mr. Cooper didn't even try to teach us math. As soon as he saw Mrs. Barr come into the class with her

suitcase, he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He sure rubs his forehead a lot. I guess he needs to moisturize. "Konnichiwa!" Mrs. Barr said as she went over and opened the window. "That means hello in Japanese." "Have you visited Japan?" asked Andrea. "I've been there many times," Mrs. Barr replied. "Japan is amazing!" "How about the United States?" asked Ryan. "Have you traveled around our country?" "Sure!" she replied. "I've been all over America. It is amazing!" "Did you go to the Grand Canyon?" asked Emily. "No," replied Mrs. Barr. "How about Mount Rushmore?" asked Alexia. "Nope. But I went to the SPAM

Museum in Minnesota." WHAT?! "There's a museum about SPAM?" Ryan asked. "Oh yes!" said Mrs. Barr. "It is amazing! Did you know that SPAM stands for spiced ham?* I also visited the largest ball of twine in the world. It's in Kansas and it's over ten feet tall! It is amazing!" Wait. Mrs. Barr has never been to the

Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore, but she's visited the SPAM Museum and a giant ball of twine? That lady is weird. "Let's talk about geography!" said Mrs. Barr. "I know something about geography," said Little Miss Know-It-All. "The word 'geography' comes from ancient Greece. It means to write or describe the earth." "I didn't know that!" said Mrs. Barr. Andrea smiled the smile that she smiles to let everybody know she knows something nobody else knows. "Let's talk about water," said Mrs. Barr. "Did you know that water covers more than two-thirds of the earth blah blah blah blah..." She went on about water for a million hundred minutes. I was starting to feel sleepy again."... blah blah blah blah the Nile is the longest river in the world blah blah blah

blah over four thousand miles long and blah blah blah blah..." I felt like my eyelids had ten-pound weights on them."... blah blah blah blah Antarctica is the coldest continent blah blah blah blah. It's the only continent that gets larger and smaller as it freezes and melts and blah blah blah blah... Antarctica... Antarctica... Antarctica... Antarctica... Antarctica... Antarctica... Antarctica...." The next thing I knew, I was having a wild dream... I'm in Antarctica. There are no schools here. Nobody has to learn stuff. Nobody has to wear a tie or go to tea parties. There are no bedtimes, and no Andrea. Nobody is making fun of me.

I don't have to do anything I don't want to do in Antarctica. I'm eating frozen pizza,