Yesterday, in
the first of the postings I put up for World Autism Awareness Week, I mentioned
that I was going to do two things over the Week. One was to reflect on work I’m
doing in the UK. The other was to explore the fit between this regional focus
and what’s going on beyond the UK. I shall have a particular opportunity to do
this towards the end of the Week when my project gets presented at a Classics
conference in the US.
The thing in question
is this – it’s what as a child in South Wales I used to call a ‘fortune teller.’
I learned in Warsaw last year from a colleague based in Australia who grew up
in New Zealand that they have other names too including Cootie Catchers and
Whirlybirds. The colleague was Liz Hale who, in a workshop she was leading, got
us using them as a means to show their potential in relation getting children
interested in classical myth,
Having handed
out various props, stickers, colouring pencils and printouts of the scene,
along with things like blu tak, glue and scissors, I let the students get going. They
really went for it, some working independently, others in groups, to produce
some rather wonderful creations. And one of these, not prompted at all by me
was this: a fortune teller.
For today, World Autism Awareness Day, I’m
going to discuss something that seems to be so widespread in children’s culture
to suggest that it might have potential for engaging children from many different
localities – with classical myth, and with a key aspect of the specific project
I’m developing for autistic children, namely making choices.
The thing in question
is this – it’s what as a child in South Wales I used to call a ‘fortune teller.’
I learned in Warsaw last year from a colleague based in Australia who grew up
in New Zealand that they have other names too including Cootie Catchers and
Whirlybirds. The colleague was Liz Hale who, in a workshop she was leading, got
us using them as a means to show their potential in relation getting children
interested in classical myth,
To use a
fortune teller (I’ll stick with the term I’m familiar with…), it’s necessary to
make choices. I am finding it hard to describe them. They are one of those children’s
games that are so complicated that only children can explain. But here’s a link
to the Wikipedia page which includes information on how to make them and how to
use them.
The outcome you
reach depends on various choices that you make by manipulating the fortune teller.
While playing with fortune tellers under Liz’s direction, I was struck by how
potentially relevant they could be to my project, which includes exploring how
Hercules is engaged in making a choice. I was also struck by how useful this might
be for autistic children, some of whom can be stuck in relation to making sense
of how the present can turn into the future.
Later in the
same week at Warsaw, at a workshop I was leading on Hercules’ choice, I mentioned
the idea that I was forming of using fortune tellers – and this idea was well
received. It remained just this, an idea, until November of last year when I
got students from my classical mythology class at Roehampton University trying
out the Choice of Hercules activities.
Having handed
out various props, stickers, colouring pencils and printouts of the scene,
along with things like blu tak, glue and scissors, I let the students get going. They
really went for it, some working independently, others in groups, to produce
some rather wonderful creations. And one of these, not prompted at all by me
was this: a fortune teller.
This shows, I
think, that I must follow up on this. I have a few ideas in formation on how to
take this forward. I shall be taking part in a at a big UK-based classics
conference in July (FIEC/CA in London: event details here) where several classicists
will gather together to show and tell public engagement work they are involved
in. I am contemplating making fortune tellers part of what I demonstrate there.
It's the Roehampton-student fortune teller that is illustrated throughout this posting.
If anyone has
any thoughts on whether – and how – I should go forward with this, do let me
know.
One update: In
respect to the collaboration with colleagues in Israel that I mentioned yesterday,
I might not get an opportunity this week after all to comment on this
initiative – because my meeting to discuss the collaboration has been moved to
next week. Instead, to keep an international flavour I plan, tomorrow, to indulge
in a brief discussion of something French and Belgian that bears on my interest
in autism.
Till tomorrow!
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