Sunday, December 9, 2012

Still Learnin': School Visits Can be Humbling


Last week I visited Fox Chapel Country Day School in Pennsylvania.  Kind of humbling.... I didn't get top billing but birthdays are important.

And check out the Tap-Taps kids had made.

And Painted Dreams.

These kids were well prepared even though it was first day back to school after Thanksgiving break.

Me: Krick
Students: Krack


This is how story telling begins in Haiti.  A promise between storyteller and audience.  And stories I told.  From my life growing up, life as a writer to Haiti, Malawi, Kenya, and the Navajo Nation...

As I have said these kids were well prepared and there is always one stumper question from the audience.  These questions often have to do with my age or how much money I make...but one thoughtful fifth grader in this group wanted to know:

What is the most important thing you have contributed in the countries where you have lived?

Wow!  I stuttered something about my husband being a doctor and saving lives...but what have I done?  A humbling question.  I guess the most important thing I have done is that I have made friends and I have come home to share what I have learned from kids around the world with kids in the US...maybe that is something....

And a postscript here:  It was Native American month in November.  Note the bulletin board:

Students at Dine College on the Navajo reservation once asked me what I had been taught about American Indians growing up...Ahhh...hmmmm...Not much I had to admit.  Most of what I knew I learned myself from books...Another humbling question...Maybe things have changed since I was young?

1 comment:

Christie Wright Wild said...

So, see? Books and stories ARE important. I was reminded last night, while reading a quote from a famous author whose name has left me at the moment, that our job as writers is a far greater than we or anyone else usually recognizes. Our responsibility is to teach people that we are all the same, capable of the same feelings and emotions, humans connected in a larger world. I think you do just that.

I love the Native America bulletin board. So touching and beautiful.