"No, of course not," said the teacher.

"Good, because I didn't do my homework," said the student.

Hillbrook School starts off every Monday morning's flag-raising ceremony with jokes, giggles and this sort of simple humor.

Head of School Sarah Bayne got the idea from another school to feature anywhere from five to seven selected students telling jokes, followed by school announcements, singing and music, plus student government reports at the beginning of each week. Standing up in front of their peers and not being afraid to talk—or just crack a joke—is something that Bayne said children need to know how to do.

"It's a measure of how safe this community is for kids," Bayne said.

Hillbrook parents like Beth Hobbs, who comes to watch the activity, said with the younger students, saying phrases like, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" have become jokes in themselves, followed immediately by laughter. Some of the younger children don't always understand the "knock, knock" jokes or other more complicated amusements that come from the older children. But no matter how complex or silly, they all laugh anyway.

"It's a good way to start off the week," said Hobbs, who is in charge of the school's community-service events. "It's lighthearted, and there's a community feel about it. They get experience standing in front of a crowd, and you have to do that all of your life. But they learn how to do it at an early age."

Bayne said there is a respectfulness involved in making sure everyone, both older and younger students, feels included in the activity. No booing is allowed, and jokes must be approved in advance by Bayne. She said the students must stay away from blonde jokes, or others that start out: "There's a guy that walked into a bar ... "

They have to be appropriate for the audience—grades junior kindergarten through eighth—she said. Sometimes the activity also includes birthday announcements and special performances.

The private, independent school, founded in 1935, is located at 300 Marchmont Drive in Los Gatos. It is a coeducational day school with just over 300 students enrolled. The school is often described as a hidden jewel, nestled in the Los Gatos hillside, where education is always a top priority.

The child-centered school is located on a 15-acre campus in a quaint, country-type setting. The school's admission director, Ann Morrissey, said children can explore the outdoors and participate in woodshop, ceramics, art, music, drama, science and physical education, to name a few options. There's also a buddy system at the school, where younger students are paired up with older ones, Bayne said. So everyone feels welcome and connected within the school.

Overall, Bayne concluded that joke telling helps students, even the smallest who occasionally get up to the microphone, feel confident about speaking their opinions. Bayne indicated that joke telling is also developmental in terms of learning and memorization.

"You never know what is going to come out of their mouths," she said.

For more information about Hillbrook School, call 408.356.6116 or visit www.hillbrook.org.