Are You Still FLUID or CONGEALED?

Dear Reader:

While attending a teacher’s three day workshop convention, one year in my early teaching career, I listened as the moderator announced the different names of the workshops being offered and when she got to one… I was so excited I wanted to jump up and run out to sign up for it before it filled.

… The name of it was ” Drama” in the Classroom. Finally… a kindred spirit! Drama was defined as turning facts into dialogue to re-tell historical stories from different perspectives. It was ME!

It was at that workshop that I first heard of Gail Godwin and her novel teaching techniques bringing storytelling into the classroom. It re-enforced what we already knew .. isolated historical facts are boring… history, as a story, connects meaning to facts in a riveting way.

So exchange glaring overhead lights for lamps and music to accompany the storytelling and you have a calm quiet audience … unknowingly listening and learning historical facts simultaneously.

In this story of a remembrance of an unforgettable teacher … the student, now grown, wonders and muses about how this special teacher’s life continued, especially because she still vividly remembers the day she was told ( as a 14 year old student) that ” there are two kinds of people-one kind you can tell just by looking at them … at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self but you know you can expect no more surprises from them.”

” Whereas the other kind… keep moving and changing- they are fluid – they keep moving forward and making new trysts with life itself for the joy of simply being alive.” They never stop adventuring! As long as you still yearn for something , you stay in forward motion -You don’t congeal.

…” the motion of it keeps fluid people young. Be constantly on your guard against congealing.”

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

**This is my grandson Jake’s take on school-he’d rather be fishing…**

Psst: Since Jake decided nine years ago to arrive on Boo’s birthday… I have to reward him for the special honor… found a suitable special ” cod” for him.

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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