Madonna has written a book (one of several children’s stories)  called Mr. Peabody’s Apples.  It is a wholesome story about a History teacher/Saturday baseball coach who is accused of stealing by his students and the community.  Every Saturday after baseball practice, Mr. Peabody walks past the local fruit stand, selects  a finely polished apple, and tosses it to one of his students.  One of the students notices that Mr. Peabody does not pay for the apple and accuses him of stealing it. Because Happville is a small town, the gossip spreads quickly and Mr. Peabody soon finds himself in a predicament.  When confronted by Tommy as to why he steals the apple, Mr. Peabody takes the young man on a field trip to the produce stand. Tommy comes to realize that Mr. Peabody pays for the fruit in advance, and has permission to take the apples when he chooses.  Tommy is contrite over the fact that he has wrongly accused his teacher, and asks for an apology.  After receiving the words, Mr. Peabody asks Tommy to bring a pillow to the park. He cuts the top of the pillow off as the wind passes by, scattering hundreds upon hundreds of feathers in the sky.  Mr. Peabody asks Tommy to then retrieve the feathers, and to Tommy’s dismay, he realizes that it is an impossible task.  The wise teacher then relates the problem to his student by showing that just as the many feathers were scattered out of one bag, so was the potential harm that came out of one rumor.   The power of words is a weighty subject, and Mr. Peabody challenges Tommy to think about the implications that could have surfaced due to his poor choice in using harsh words against his teacher. 

The book resonates with me because I work in an environment where words are the means of exchange. Teachers like to talk….some more than others. Teachers like to make life lessons out of words. They like to chunk, paraphrase, extract, and dissect  for their students in such a way that the information  is applicable to their own lives.  But if you spend time, often, with teachers, you notice that communication is really just a different kind of baseball game. It actually is more like a basketball game because there is contact.  Academic brawl becomes the ball and plays take the form of inuendo and idiomatic expression.  I imagine that it is fun when you have been taught the plays, are encouraged to play the plays you know, or are patted on the back for trying. The opposite, however, of this sport is not being told the plays….or better yet, not being given a position to play nor coached in the drills.  You feel like you keep jumping for free throws  yet the taller person blocks you, or the forward is more, or maybe you never get passed the ball because you aren’t a team player.  Okay, maybe.  But honestly, sooner or later, you get angry enough, or hurt enough and you either fight or fly.  And when it comes to education, is flying the best strategy for anyone? Do the children win out if the teacher has flown the coop?  Good teachers help nourish and draw out of the good they already see.  They don’t hammer down or supress, they don’t create a fear of getting it wrong, they let their students walk out their mistakes and learn from them.  They don’t judge, they use their words to build up and not to tear down, or they let them just come out without any repercussion.  Good teachers are not afraid of freedom, they are afraid of rules. 

So, back to Mr. Peabody’s Apples and the power of words.  I would like to enter into a game, maybe like baseball, where the bases are clearly marked, there is order as to who is up to bat, and everyman gets a fair shot.