Yesterday I was the Molin School in Newburyport working with fourth graders to make books for The Poetry Fence at the Newburyport Literary Festival. Books made of tyvek containing poems they have written will be hanging along the fence of the Newburyport Public Library for two weeks, one before and one after, the Festival on April 28. I smile every time I think of this interchange with one of the students.
STUDENT: There's something wrong with the scissors.
ME: Here try these.
STUDENT: These don't work either.
ME: Would you like me to try?
STUDENT: Yes...I guess it's not the scissors.
At about that age, I went to an art class with my sister - I remember being surrounded by Big Girls. We carved linoleum blocks. I borrowing people's tools, because clearly their's worked. But mine never did. Finally the teacher came to my rescue. She explained that linoleum was hard, and I might not have the muscles yet to carve it. I still remember my amazement, to realize there was another way to see.
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