An Idea That Just Popped Into My Head

by ComputerBob

March 1, 2008

One of my jobs is to teach computer skills to "at-risk" children. Over time, I've seen the opportunity to evolve my classes from simply teaching the mechanics of computing, to teaching what I now call "creative computer skills." I think of it as the difference between teaching them the history and parts of a hammer and teaching them how to use a hammer to build things. So, for the past several weeks, I've been using several of my own stories to teach them about the power of the written word and encourage them to open up and share their own stories. Sometimes, I assign them a topic to write about, but mostly, I let them write about whatever they want, as long as it's a true story. They've been incredibly receptive to the idea, and are really thriving on the opportunity to express themselves through writing. So far, they've written a variety of topics on sometimes very powerful subjects, with titles that range from "The Night I Rip My Pants At My Garma House" to "My Mom Is My Hero" to "My Mom's Cat Died" to "Love of Death."

Last night, I taught them a few life lessons by teaching them how to pop popcorn. First, we talked about the fact that stories can come from real experiences or from your imagination, but they always start out in your head before they end up on the computer screen or on paper. Reiterating one of the recurring themes of my teaching, I reminded them that each of them has stories in their head that could help a lot of people if they would share them. Then I asked them to think about what makes one person a good storyteller and another person a boring storyteller.

Opening my notebook, I read them a brand new, two-page story about popping popcorn. Leaving out no details, my story began with how to select a good popcorn-making pan. It went on to describe how balance is important in determining how much oil to use — use too much and you end up boiling the popcorn; use too little and the kernels stick to the pan and burn — and we all know how awful burnt popcorn smells and tastes. The theme of balance came up again when using both white corn (for taste) and yellow corn (for its bigger size); when setting the stove burner hot enough to pop the corn quickly, but not so hot as to burn it; when carefully letting the steam out of the pan as the kernels are popping; when shaking the pan to keep the popping kernels from sticking and burning; and when taking the pan off of the heat while the last kernels are still popping.

As I carefully described the sights, sounds, sensations, and smell of popping corn, I could see their eyes widen. If they had been cartoon characters, they would have been drooling all over the table.

When I finished reading, I stood up and handed the pages to the nearest child. She immediately proclaimed with surprise, "Hey! There's nothing on these pages!" I smiled, pointed to my head, and said, "That's because a good story always starts up here."

Then, I walked across the room, opened a closet door and took out a large covered pan, completely filled with the still-warm popcorn that I had popped right before I left home to teach.

For the rest of the hour, they happily ate as much popcorn as they wanted while they worked on their own stories.