"The free play of art is the result of mastery. " --Ernst Fischer, The Necessity of Art

"Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them." --Ladybird Johnson

"...a well-trained ear, a well-trained intelligence, a well-trained heart, and a well-trained hand...." --Zoltan Kodaly

6/9/10

Daily Life, 57

Kindergarten Music, doing a puppet show with teeny animal puppets on a teeny tiny stage:

Jana* Hey, Ms. N, my lion's hungry.

Me Uh oh, better give him some cereal, fast.

Jana* Silly! Lions don't eat cereal, they eat meat.

Tomas* Yeah, they eat, like, other animals and stuff. Like giraffes and that.

At this point, all of the kids who had non-lion puppets scurried their puppets away from the lion one.

Kids' puppets: "Don't eat me, I'm not dinner!" "Get away from me, you meat eater!" "Go eat someone your own size!" "Have some chicken McNuggets instead!"

Jana* (turning to me, her eyes wide) You know, Ms. N, chickens make eggs. You know, like we had for breakfast this morning. Those were little baby chickens, for real!

A chorus of 'eeews' greeted her announcement. She turned to the other children:

Jana* No, I'm not kidding. My Mom told me. Eggs are really the beginnings of baby chickens. That's what you're eating when you eat an egg.

Kids* Dis--gusting! EEEEWWWW....

Me Hmm...I'm not sure the eggs you get in your school breakfast really could turn into baby chicks if you didn't eat them. But let's feed the lion some pizza right now, so he's not quite so hungry, OK?

*Jana is, of course, not this budding vegetarian's real name, nor is Tomas this young puppeteer's real name.

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