Date: Fri 03-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

diversity-Mishico-Hawley

Full Text:

The Lessons Of Togetherness

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

In the spirit of cultural diversity, 30 Danbury seventh graders from Broadview

Middle School shared their African inspired stories with first and second

grade classes at Hawley School.

The first grade children in Donna Mishico's class circled around Ashley

Gentile and the other three seventh graders as the storytelling began.

Set in ancient Egypt, The Magic Paintbrush is the story of a magical girl,

Hestia, who loved to draw. After drawing many sketches, Hestia looked over her

work and realized that something was missing. But she didn't know what.

The first graders pulled in closer and listened to Ashley's tale.

"One night Hestia was dreaming about a waterfall that crashed down into a

crystal blue spring and was surrounded with blue, purple and red wild flowers.

In her dream she looked up and saw a sky-blue sky with big puffy white clouds

in it. When Hestia woke up from that dream she said out loud, `That is what is

missing, colors !'"

Ashley vividly described how Hestia found wild berries and twigs to make dyes

to give her drawings color. Then, the tale goes, Hestia pulled out her

favorite picture. "She colored some people black, white, pale pink, red and

tan. She did not like how it came out, though, and ripped it up into tiny

pieces and threw it out her window. The wind picked up the small pieces of the

painting and threw them everywhere. All of a sudden her painting started to

become alive... the gods and goddesses invited Hestia to live with them and

together they all enjoyed the birth of the people."

More than just a synthesis of myth, fact and values, the works were creatively

keyed to ideas to the interests of the young audiences. Noise turned to music,

as the players in Chris Jowdy's story learned to work together in a mood of

teamwork and cooperation.

Messages of "not judging people by how they look" and "deciding not to steal"

were couched in stories featuring African animals which the first graders had

been studying.

After hearing Erin MacCarry's story, first grade teacher Kathy Leja said,

"They had morals to the story, which was great for the kids. We're interested

in them as people. We're going to write them a letter, and maybe we can start

writing back and forth."

Hawley second graders who had been studying Africa also felt a very natural

fit with the guests. Broadview teacher and program organizer Irene Mlynar said

how impressed she was with the Hawley kids. She said, "We walked in and asked

`what do you know about Africa?' And these kids were spieling it off left and

right. They knew about the grasslands, the Egyptian pyramids, the countries

and the people! It was so welcoming for our kids!"