Innocence

I love it when I see glimpses of innocence in my students.
One day, the students were all sitting on the rug waiting for the minilesson. I went to grab something from the closet.
"Oooooooooo!!!" the kids chant. I turn around with a questioning look on my face.
"Jack said the G-word!" I heard that they said the 'D'- word. I bring Jack to me next to the closet, away from the other kids.
"What did you say?" I ask in a firm voice and a stern face. Poor Jack doesn't know what to say. He's an English Learner and is barely acquiring BICS. I have to work a lot with him to use complete sentences. He can't look me in the eye and stares at his feet. He looks surprised as well as scared because of what he did. He doesn't speak.
"Jack. Tell me what you said." Tears are building up in his eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder. "Jack, I need to know if you said a bad word." I usually make the students own up to their mistakes. They need to tell me what they did rather than have others incriminate them (sometimes falsely).
"Gsh." He mumbles.
"Gosh?" I ask. He nods.
"Gosh." He affirms.
"Oh! Jack, that's okay. That's not a bad word! Class, 'gosh' is NOT a bad word. Let's get back to work."
Awww. Poor Jack. That's how innocent my class is. They think "gosh" is bad.