Week 6 Storytelling: Why Ben Lets Cassie On The Boys' Side

Once there was a school with many, many children in it. Every day they got let out to recess. The girls would go to their side, and the boys to theirs. This is how it had always been. 

School Yard
From Wikipedia

…that is until one day Cassie decided she wanted a drink of water. The problem was that the water was all the way on the boys’ side of the playground, and that was dangerous territory. You see, Cassie was a big, brave first grader, but there were some things even she knew were risky. Cassie could not stand it any longer, she needed some water. Her friends would not dare go with her, they just laughed and kept on playing. Cassie snuck over to the boys’ side, and seemed to go unnoticed.



That is until Ben walked over to her. Cassie could see that he had a few rocks in his hands, and knew that he wanted to throw them at her. It would be a fitting punishment for crossing over to the boys’ side. But Cassie was not dumb enough to come over without a plan if anything should happen. So when Ben got close enough to throw the rocks, she called out, “Brother, do not harm me!” Ben was very confused. He had two sisters, but Cassie was not one of them. She had never even met his parents! How could she be his sister?



For the rest of recess Ben wandered around in a state of confusion. This wore off though when they got back inside and had to focus on spelling….EW!



The next day everything was normal again, but halfway through recess Cassie had done a lot of running about. She was dying of thirst! She was no longer afraid of the boys side, and brazenly walked over to get herself a drink of water.



Ben saw this happen again, and grabbed his rocks. They were where he had left them the day before so he was prepared. He quietly crept over to where Cassie stood, and was just about ready to throw his rocks. Cassie again called out, “Brother, do not harm me!”



What was it with this girl and calling people her brother?



Ben would not forget this time. He was determined to tell his mom today when he went home. The rest of the day he was deep in thought over this puzzling matter. In the pickup line he ran into one of his older sister’s friends, Becky. She could tell something was bothering ben, so she asked him what was the matter. Ben told her the story of how Cassie had called him her brother, and how he was certain she was not his sister.



Becky explained to Ben that although he was no way related to Cassie, that sometimes people may refer to other people in their community as their brothers and sisters. This is because we are all tied to one another through our human nature. She then explained how we may all have our different quirks, but we are one in the same on the inside. Becky then scolded ben for trying to be so mean to Cassie, and taught him that it’s not right to be mean to someone just because they are different from us. It was not right to target Cassie for being a girl.



Ben realized that Becky was right, and he no longer needed to talk to his mom about all of this. From this day on he would let Cassie and any other girl get a drink from the fountain on the boys’ side. He also vowed to never purposefully be mean to another person.


Ben had learned his lesson.





Author’s Note: This story came from the story Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen. This is from the Congo unit, and tells of a hen that goes to a river to drink water. The Crocodile sees the hen and wants to eat it, which is where I came up with an idea to do a boys’ and a girls’ side of the playground. I remember when I was in grade school we always played separately on different side of the playgrounds. In the story the crocodile goes to eat the hen, but is puzzled when the hen tries to stop him, while also calling him brother. The crocodile is so confused that he goes away. When I had Ben throwing rocks, I came up with this because once when my sister went near the boys’ side of our playground a boy threw rocks at her for getting “too close,” which I thought was pretty funny. The story gets resolved when the crocodile goes to talk to a higher up, but runs into a friend who says that the chicken lays eggs like they do, so they are one in the same. This made me think of when you go to church and everyone is referred to as brothers and sisters, so that is how I decided to incorporate this aspect.

Bibliography: "Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen." Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898). 

 

Week 6 Reading Diary Continued: Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen

For the second portion of the Congo unit from Richard EdwardDennet I found the story of Why the Crocodile Does Not Eat the Hen very touching. It spoke of unity within a community where there are many different creatures, but one in which they can coexist. I think this has a message in it for everyone because many times when we see someone who is different we can be very cruel to them, instead of accepting. If I were to turn this into a story I would want to use humans instead of animals. I would want to put it in a school setting with young children. For the crocodile I would choose a young boy who was trying to pick on a young girl (the hen) by throwing rocks at her. She would stop him as the hen did in the story, by calling him her brother. He would be puzzled everyday, and finally on his way home that day to ask his mother about what was going on he would run into one of the older kids on the playground. The older kid would speak to him about community, and how although we may not be directly related we are all brothers and sisters, and should each other with dignity and respect. In the end the boy would end up playing at recess the next day with his new friend and “sister”. He would also vow to never be mean or to tease to anyone ever again.

Kids Playing
From Pixabay

Week 6 Reading Diary: The Vanishing Wife

I chose to read the Congo unit from R.E. Dennett this week. From the first part of the reading I found that I was most intrigued by the first story of the vanishing wife. I also really enjoyed the story of how the gazelle married, but I think I would rather write a story about the vanishing wife. I think it would be more fun to play around with, and find what does and doesn’t work. I would like to maybe make the story somewhat more modern. Instead of the house and all of Buite’s riches disappearing at the end, I would change the story and instead tell it from his perspective. He would have gone back to his brother’s place after losing everything, and would be telling him the story. After he had told him the story Buite would ask his brother to come looking for his wife with him, but his brother would deny all of his requests. He would then have him committed to the psych ward. After all, no one tells tales like these unless they are certifiably insane! If he were to tell everyone else in town, they would gossip and talk. This would make Swarmi nervous since he was very well liked, and would not want to lose this position with the people he hung out with everyday. 

(harvesting from the palm tree;

photograph in Dennett's book)