For nearly two yeas, I have had the pleasure leading educational programs for kids as volunteer docent at the maritime museum. Without a doubt, these opportunities have been among my greatest joys since retiring. Working with the kids has sharpened my skills as a docent and also provided many moments of comic relief.
I will not soon forget a recent program with a group of fourth grade students; I was leading them in an activity to identify the major causes of ship wrecks. Just in case you are wondering, they are as follows: weather, human error, and mechanical failure.
On this particular afternoon, the group was struggling to identify mechanical failure so I decided a suggestion might help. I told them the following scenario: pretend that you are the captain of a big ship and while steering it, the ship’s steering wheel falls off and breaks – what would you call this? Without cracking a smile, a boy proudly proclaimed “not a good thing!”
As I stood there wondering what to say next, I realized he was right. Maybe we need to rewrite the program.
3 comments:
Yes, a re-write sounds like a good idea. LOL
Monte, I once read that an actor should avoid working with animals and kids - they will always over shadow you!
Yea, you can always count on kids to break it down to the simplest of terms, even when you'd rather they not. :-)
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