The other day Shannon and I were exchanging ideas about just what is the problem with some of the teaching and as per Gatto if you want the full story it is that the teacher knows the right ans and much of the drill is to drill into the kids the right ans and they be able to give it on prefab tests which the teachers teach to at risk of losing their jobs

the thrust of these storys is not to teach that the right ans is to “feed the snake”

or to “not shit where you sleep”

but rather to present in a fashion that the kids your kids see how Raymond and his rat buds came to those ans and how like all ans they are provisional moreso than right or wrong

I mean sometimes maybe it might be best to not feed the snake

oh yeah – I did this as I started to say – it worked with the kids to the extent that when devon went to Berlin for a semester of high school he sent back tapes – not about rats – but 40 years ahead – the skinheads and the turks and the whole foreign worker thing 40 years early and any kid could understand it

I think the rats will yield at least 50 stories and there are two favours of rats – Dumbos and wild – and at least in the illustrations the two favours should be distinct

If you want to keep it real simple and more like a cartoon

getting the dumbos right is ears and color – Raymond is a two tone dumbo and since most the rats are his if they evidence as dumbos that is what you get – the ears – lower and larger and two tone paint job

the rat snake in reality is so much bigger than a rat you will have to take license – look it up – biggest wild snake in ontario

I do like the fox as already drawn and likewise the rats

when this thing hits critical mass there will be no reason for the kids to not act out the stories

I see a totally audio series of just that for kids at sea and that just might full circle was theorists have been waiting for 50 years

a kind of global audio story telling world villiage

what I like about your style is that it will invite the kids in

the way the stories are delivered with a parent guide and serious reference

is that these stories can be as interesting as the old disney animals but nearer to the truth

not something to belabor and it has to work at the beginnin without that overburden

but come on

you, Raymond, go out for your morning hunt, you come back and the bottom of the cage is filled with a dozy rat snake about to hibernate for the winter

that is what they do

but what do you Raymond do

it takes a few tales but you wake him up feed him and make him the rat god

and that makes all the difference between wild rats without a god

and dumbos with one

the story works in layers
and if it works it really works because whereas a lot of excellent stuff for kids works for the kids there is no back story

these are rough notes to shannon but everyone is invited and trust me I will take into account anything anyone has to add

if any of you have listened to audible books you know how a turned on family who could make it a play and have the voices – versus one reader

this thing can work at all levels

good science
good politic

but it must always begin as a story your children want to hear

I did a bit of this 40 years ago b