by Julie Pasqual
Julie with some Littles |
It all began in the first of the three
classes, when someone mentioned that, like a character in the story, they had
seen someone faint. It was during a choir concert in a nursing home. IMMEDIATELY, hands flew up in the air.
“Oh yeah,
“several kids said. “I was there, too!” Soon, details began to flush out and escalate
the tale. The story grew from it being
just someone fainting, to other students seeing it and fainting as well, still
others got nauseous and threw up, and the whole time the choral director told
them just to keep singing!! In each of
the three classes more details emerged and grew – and I actually got to meet
the young man who was the first to faint, who, of course doesn’t remember
anything!! The classroom teacher was
stunned she had never heard anything about this before, and said, “And you all
tell me you have nothing to write about!!”
Besides all of us laughing A LOT
about what we called “The Nursing Home Incident”, it was the classroom teacher
who said, “Remember what JP (my nickname) was telling us about how folktales
change and grow over time – this is IT!!!!”
I had to agree. No amount of
explaining, reading, or dissecting could have made the journey of a folktale
over time, more tangible and relatable than what the kids had done in real time
that day. And, it all began with a
really simple question!!!!