Tell Me a Story

One of the odd ironies of my job is that although a lot of it is taken up with thinking about and talking about and advocating for children in community, I spend very little actual time with them. Which is why I enjoy Fridays at Callahan so much. I get to spend time with children. They aren't always angels and while some of them treat me like a rock star, others treat me like - uh not. I like it anyhow, humility lessons notwithstanding. I like watching kids have an ah ha moment. I like hearing about a world that I no longer inhabit - not even vicariously through my own kids and I really like to visit the third graders and tell them a story. A week ago at the request of that teacher, I went in to storytell. I usually ask the teacher what the kids are working on and what might be useful for the class to hear. I've done myth, tall tales, lots of folks tales and a handful of contemporary stories. Today I asked if they knew what a fairy tale was. No. That's not a surprise, but when I asked if they'd ever heard the old classics - Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, The Three Little Pigs I got a bunch of blank looks. Video games up the wazoo, but no fairy tales. So I told one. And these technology jaded kiddos lapped it up. They were rapt, attentive (even the ADD kings and queens) and hungry for more. They were willing to give up lunch for a story. Now, we're talking school lunch of course, but along with lunch comes recess and they were willing to give THAT up too. I can't wait to go back. Kids. Stories. Such a perfect combination.