Learning From Children

Two interests have dominated my life, teaching and writing.  I came into each from the back door.  When I was a young college student I ran from teaching, literally.  I left my home state and traveled by train to Texas to live on Rodd Field in Corpus Christi, all to escape taking a job teaching, much as Jonah fled  God's command.  I would never compare my situation to the minor prophet Jonah, rather to say I tried to escape  my real calling as did Jonah.  Eventually I made my way back to college to  finish my studies and yes, to become a teacher.  Jonah had a more exciting journey on board a ship heading for Tarshish, but eventually he too made his way to Ninevah to preach to the people there.  The whole story of Jonah is told in the book of Jonah in the old testament of the Bible.

Once I began my first job of teaching I found it to be the most exciting and rewarding job I could ever have found.  Working with young children is very stimulating and the opportunities for creativity are endless.  The young children I had in my first class back in 1949, were so eager to learn and so compliant with my instruction that it made each day a new adventure.  After four years teaching in the Applachian mountains of Kentucky, I went with my husband to the eastern shore of Maryland to live.  After my own little family was up and going I returned to classroom teaching and that brings me to the point of this writing.

In one of my classes in Severna Park, Maryland, near the town of Annapolis, one of my students was a little girl named Tammy Lynn.  The year was 1968. Tammy's father was a scientist and he traveled the oceans.  When he returned from one of his trips he brought back a jar of water, which Tammy brought to school for show and tell.  This was no ordinary jar of water.  It had been scooped up from the Sargasso Sea in the region of calms in the north Atlantic, northeast of the West Indies.  It is noted for its abundance of sargassum.  The sargassum is a brown seaweed found there,  thus the name of the sea.  This seaweed has flattened, leaflike outgrowths and special branches with berry-like air sacks which float on the water.

I had never heard of the Sargasso sea.  We all learned that day from Tammy in show and tell.  Tammy had a talented older sister named Jo.  Jo was very creative and she made something for Tammy to give me at Christmas.  It was a clipboard with one of Jo's creative designs on the back.  I have kept it all these years and I treasure it for itself and for reminding me of how even a little child shall lead them.

I now will take a big leap into writing, though I came into it gradually.  I have always had a penchant for writing.  When I was a fourth grader my teacher wrote across the top of my creative writing efforts "what an imagination".  I suppose you could take that two ways, but it is my earliest memory of writing.  The second one was when I was asked to write the prophecy of our senior class.  No doubt I got very creative with that also, but I do not have a copy to prove or disprove it.

When I was married at the age of 23, I began keeping a journal.  I kept an account of our spending as we had to make our salary as teachers last for a month at a time.  Later on I kept a journal when my children were born and it has great gaps in it as children have a way of keeping you too busy to do much writing.

In graduate school I took a class in children's literature and did some writing in that class which was designed to make you research facts for your writing.  I wrote a story I called Boston Ruby about Revolutionary Times.

Later when I was teaching in Georgia I took a class in writing for children at Emory in an evening class.  My students were also writers, as early as January in their first year.  So writing has become a part of my life.  At the present time I am in the northeast Georgia Writers Group and this has been an impetus for even more writing.

To get back to the learning connection, teaching and writing, I am now in a group writing effort in fiction. Fiction is not my first love and I have had to switch my thinking in this collaborative effort.  In the story a couple were ordering lunch and they were in a restaurant called the Vortex, which has implications for the plot in the story.  It was my turn in the story and I had the man order lunch for them both.  He was having a big burger so I had him order from the menu "hero tornado" and for the lady Sargasso soup.  The names were used as descriptions  for the role of the characters, or the role as I see it at this point of the story.  It is a fun effort and in no way is it intended to be the epic novel of 2012.

So, learning about the Sargasso sea in 1968 from one of my young students has come back to find a  place in 2012 in a contemporary story.  Childen are teachers even when they are just being themselves.  Back in 1949 I was in a volunteer group of teachers for a child study program.  We each selected a student in our class to study via anecdotal notes.  The purpose, though unspoken was designed to make us more observant of our students and to better understand their behavior.  It was sponsored by the Child Development Group at the University of Maryland. It was one of the most helpful efforts in my after college years.

Never discount children as teachers . They may make you laugh, or want to cry.  They can teach us many things and can do it in many different ways.  They are very truthful and forgiving and also the future of our world.