Lessons' Impressions

     Yesterday was Pirate Day at the day care where Virginia and Horatio have spent three half-days per week this summer. It was also my first post-retirement-from-the-lab storytelling gig as Sarah told the teachers we would come by for 30 minutes in the morning. I collected a bunch of pirate jokes from a website for grandparents who want to tell pirate jokes, really, and I purposely avoided all the “booty” jokes thinking they might be inappropriate; I put on a Hawaiian shirt and braided my hair, forgoing the peace symbol eye patch, and Sarah and I delivered ourselves to the school.

     I started the pirate jokes, “why are pirates so mean?” answer - “they just Arrrrrrr!” the kids joined in and almost immediately they asked me, “what does the pirate keep in his pants?” answer, “his booty!” 

     Sigh.

     Once the group was back in control again, thanks to Sarah and her calming finger-plays and songs, I told some personal stories about three four-year-old girls – the kids could identify with what the girls in my stories were going through so they kept their attention, for the most part. (The four-year-old girls were Sarah and Amanda and me)

     While I was telling the stories, a memory flashed by of my being at the kindergarten in the town where we lived in Oklahoma – the town where we were advised not to buy a house because the school system had a bad reputation and we bought the house anyway. And I volunteered to read in the kindergarten the year we were there. I went in once a month, and it was for about a half an hour. Sarah was three and Amanda was an infant – they went with me.

     The first month or two I read things I thought the kids would really like – but I could tell they were not paying attention, not getting it. So I tried to figure out how to be more entertaining, and on the third month, I took Dr. Seuss. The kids were engaged – probably because they were familiar with the particular Dr. Seuss stories I had. So I continued with what I thought was a sure thing – reading Dr. Seuss each month with my own goofy flair and hopefully among all the selections there were some they had not heard before but still kept their attention.

     At the end of the school year, the last month I went into the class, the teacher said that I was the favorite reader of all the volunteers the kids had! That was rewarding – to have figured out what the kids liked. Maybe one of them is volunteering in a kindergarten class today.

     When Sarah and Amanda were in high school, there was something called Read Across America Day, and I think it was on Dr. Seuss' birthday. Volunteers signed up to read something to a class. One year I was matched up with an English as a Second Language class – and oh my gosh what could I read to them? I was at a loss as to what the kids would like. And it occurred to me to just read some Dr. Seuss. But I did not want to insult them – if I read a children's book they might think that I thought they were not of high school intelligence – but then again, if their English was not all that polished, perhaps the rhyming words would entertain them for a while.

     Finally, I decided to read the Dr. Seuss books. And the kids responded well – laughing, smiling, eyes lit up. It could be that they were just being polite to the lady crazy enough to think high school kids could be entertained in this way – or maybe it was the perfect choice after all. I don't know, but the next year, I was not asked to Read Across America Day – I thought maybe the high school was not doing it anymore, and then after a few years it occurred to me that, yeah, the high school most likely was still doing it. Maybe a former ESL student is connecting with the kids reading better choices as a volunteer these days.

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