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50
School
Days and Preschool Days, Too:
A treasury of anecdotes culled from my work
and play as a preschool
worker and an elementary school after- school activities supervisor
______
IT TAKES A CHILD TO RAISE A VILLAGE
(conclusion)
One afternoon, with no
note or sign of how they got there or of who had left them, we found
a sheaf of bamboo poles, each 6 to 8 feet, lieing on the grass, tied
together with a rope. While we were puzzling over the poles, school
let out.
As Roll Call proceeded I entered the
village area to find some girls complaining about being again kicked
out of one of the huts. I questioned some of the builders about these
exclusions. Meanwhile, the children had
discovered the bamboo poles. A dozen of them had picked up poles and
were chaotically walking or running this way or that. A teacher who
happened to be observing rushed over to the village and got there before
anyone fell or got poked. In a loud voice, she declared the whole area
off limits. The village experiment came to what turned out to be a permanent
halt.
Coincidentally, I was away from Elementary
aftercare for the next two days, substituting for a sick teacher in
the Kindergarten program. When I returned, all that remained of the
village was a large pile of sticks and logs, and another of dried grass.
The Aftercare chairperson had spoken to the children, telling them that
the project had been a wonderful success and had simply gone as far
as our natural and human resources were able to take it.
The builders helped with the dismantling,
and for the next week used a wheelbarrow to return materials onto the
big hill. Things in aftercare were a bit subdued. It was hot and, except
for water play, most of the children preferred being indoors. Out on
the playground, waiting for the next wave of creative group energy,
I put in my time, riding my imaginary stead from place to place over
vast tracts of blacktop, mending the fences on the King Ranch.
*****
continued back contents title
page
"What Remains Is
the Essence", the home pages of Max Reif:
poetry, children's
stories, "The
Hall of Famous Jokes", whimsical
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