Blogs by Gayle Martin
Tombstone Kids
2/24/2010 4:32:47 PM
I had a really great time the other day in Tombstone, Arizona. I did a presentation for the 4th, 5th and 6th graders at the elementary school, and they were a great bunch of kids.
My talk was about "How to Write a Story" and I used my children's book, "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: Luke and Jenny Visit Tombstone," as a model for the discussion. Those kids were so excited. Not only did we talk about book writing, we talked about the town itself, and why an author like me would want to write a book about their town in the first place. Some understood the significance of their town, others did not. So we also had a discussion on why their town is so famous, and why people come from all over the world to see it. I think they were all impressed. At the end of the hour it was hard to get the Q & A session to stop so the teachers could start the next class.
It's interesting too the way the schools have changed since we were kids. I got there during lunch period and set up my display while the room was still empty. After I was done I looked around at the bulletin boards. A lot of it was the same stuff that we would have seen in the classroom walls when we were kids. There were posters about good manners, doing the right thing, treating others with respect and so forth. But what's different was so many posters about bullying. The schools are finally starting to realize that this is a problem and they are addressing it. When I was a kid nothing was done about bullies. The philosophy back then was to just ignore them, but all that did was embolden the bully. Too bad it's taken so many school-shootings to realize that bullies won't stop unless someone intervenes and addresses the issue. Too soon to tell how well this will work long term since these kind of policies haven't been in place that long.
What I also noticed, and this was disturbing, was there was no American flag in the classroom.
When I was a kid every classroom had both an American flag and an Arizona flag from kindergarten all the way through the 8th grade, and each school day began with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Are they no longer saying the Pledge of Allegiance in the schools? If not then we need to bring this tradition back.
Still, all in all it was a very good day.
GM
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More Blogs by Gayle Martin
• I've Started a New Food and Cooking Blog - Sunday, August 08, 2010
• Don't Let Anyone Rip You Off - Saturday, April 10, 2010
• The Cure for Writer's Block - Saturday, March 13, 2010
• Your Book Promotional Materials--What Works and What Does Not - Monday, March 01, 2010
• Tombstone Kids - Wednesday, February 24, 2010
• Tombstone Kids - Monday, February 22, 2010
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