I think I’ve basically become a bit of an arts educator. It’s not a role I thought would come with the territory of published author and storyteller, but it’s kind of morphed that way and I think I’m good at it.

I had developed a program I called Universality in Folktales years ago.

I first developed it for schools through the Ontario Arts Council, where I’d go in to schools to do five day residencies where I worked with kids on their literacy and oral skills using folktales.

I had noticed that kids these days don’t have much exposure to folktales. And with the storytelling courses I took I realized how much wisdom they were missing out on.

Folktales are stories that contain all kinds of life lessons and social skills that kids of all ages can benefit from.

In my program the kids were encouraged to bring in folktales from their cultural backgrounds and share them with other kids in the class as a way of understanding the diverse cultures that made up their community in a positive way.

The last couple of days have them telling their stories, and me judging them, and handing out a prize at the end.

So I was doing the program in a school nearby and one kid said something that had me completely nonplussed.

He said, “I don’t want to win.”

And I just looked at him blankly.

He had figured out that it was a lot of effort for something he didn’t care about winning.

What do you do with that kind of attitude?

I thought about what he’d said for the rest of the day.  And the conclusion I came to was at least he was honest.

There’s an awful lot of kids who go through life coasting. And why wouldn’t they?

The next day was the last day I’d be with them, so I thought I’d address the idea. I told them that yes, this is an option, but what they’ll find is that eventually everyone else will pass them by and they’ll wonder why they’re stuck and not getting anywhere.

I told them what I’d learned, that you get out of life what you put into it. If you give the least amount of effort, you’ll get the least amount in return, and I reminded them of the Chicken Little story.

And wouldn’t you know they hadn’t heard of it!

I quickly told them the story of the Chicken who asked the other animals who would help her plant the wheat? “Not I!” said the dog. “Not I!” said the cat. “Not I!” said the pig. And so she planted it herself.

And then she asked who would help her weed the plants? Again a chorus of “Not I!” from the dog, cat and pig. So she did it herself.

Who would help her cut the wheat? Nope, none of the animals would help, so she did it herself.

Who would help her take the wheat to the mill to grind it into flour? None of the animals, so she did it herself.

Who would help her make the bread? None of the animals so she did it herself.

And then she asked, “Who will help me eat the bread?” And then the dog, the cat, and the pig jumped up shouting, “I will!”

“No,” she said. “You did not help me plant the wheat, you did not help me weed the wheat, you did not help me cut the wheat, you did not help me take it to the mill, you did not help me bake the bread, so you will not eat the bread with me.” And instead she shared it with her chicks.

Kids need these stories especially in these times!

I don’t know if my little foray into life lessons made an impact on that one student, but I certainly do hope at least a few of the kids were listening!