How the stories that daddies tell, are different from the mommies’, a man who’d, participated in his own children’s coming of age processes, by being, an active story dad for their classes, translated…
As my children entered into the first grade, when they’d come home, they’d always told of how the moms who’d volunteered in the class would tell stories. My wife felt this was a great idea, and signed up for it the following semester, but, as it came her time, to be “on duty”, she’d moved, and, “Morning Mom” became, “Morning Dad”.
The very first time I’d gone, I’d told the story of a very unknown scientist, Dr. Ilya Mechnikov.
illustration from the papers…
Over a decade ago, I’d read a thesis at the hospitals, and found that this scientist had an interesting story, anyways, he’d found the phagocytosing cells, then, cultured the probiotics, in the end, due to his enormous contributions to human immunology, he’d, won the medical award of the Nobel Prize in 1908. Out of my expectations, the children were, very engaged in the story I’d told, and after I’d told the life-tale of Mechnikov, they’d started asking me questions.
My children were twins, and so, I’d gone to both classes to tell the stories. That day, my children after they came home, chimed on about how funny my story was, and how their classmates loved my stories, and, a lot of their classmates told, that they would NEVER drink the yogurt drinks again ever, because Dr. Mechnikov had taken the cultures of the probiotics from the feces, added into the milk to ferment, then, out came, the very first bottle of yogurt drink in the world. I’d felt, how proud my children were, that was, outside of my expectations.
Afterwards, they’d gotten the goodies of my storytelling, and kept urging me, to come to their classes, and I’d kept it up for several years too, and, it’d made us gotten along even better as father and children too.
I’d told them a ton of tales in history too, but, I’d never told the tales in the books, instead, I’d, taken the sides of the external tribes, on how they’d, kicked the butts of the Asian race, which was, totally, opposite in what they’d learned in school. Once, the school told me to tell the students the stories of Fei Yueh, and yet, this story was already heard over a million times by the students, and so, I’d told them how the story of the Real-Women Tribe had started up in the Northeast of China, and how the emperor had, taken control during the Jing Dynasty, and started a war, and although, he’d lost, to Fei Yueh, but, he was excellent in using hostages, and utilized the emperor’s tendencies, and had two bad people, murdered Fei Yueh together.
The normal story books only called the emperor, Zong-Bi by his nickname, but had, intentionally, ignored his status in history, actually, Zong-Bi not only controlled the two worlds of the Song Dynasty and the Jing Dynasty, but he was, also, well-studied too, singlehandedly, assimilated the Jing people into the Asian ways. After the story, I’d even asked the children, who they wanted to be during the time, Zong-Bi, the winner, or Fei Yueh, the loser?
Perhaps, it’s my good storytelling techniques, the children went home and told, and so, there would be, parents from other classes who’d sat in to listen too. And, students from my children’s grade levels, they all knew me, as I’d trekked down the halls, a lot of people would, greet me—being middle aged, and I still have, a TON of fans, it feels amazing.
The kids grow up in a blink of an eye, I’m more than glad, to have, left this imprint of me, as a daddy of the morning crew in their lives. Actually, every school has this sort of a structure, it’s just, that there are, a ton of story moms, and not enough, story dads. All the dads out there, do put yourselves up for it!
And I think, that I will always remember, how once as I’d taken my child to school, and had the storytelling sessions, my daughter told me, “daddy, let’s hold hands, and walk into the class together!”
And so, this, is the experiences of how a man, became, involved in his children’s growth processes, he’d become, a story dad for his children’s classes, and became men carried a different perspective on things, that is why, their stories are quite different than the moms’, and, we need more of these, story dads, to broaden the perspectives of young children’s lives.