A first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford.
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“What I do is basically back up the teachers in the classroom by supporting the information they’re giving to students, but delivering it in a different paradigm. For instance, I might talk about the importance of reading, and tell the kids how there’s a picture from ancient Egypt of a person doing a magic trick called Cups and Balls. And then I’ll show them the trick. Kids really like that. Hopefully it inspires them to think that history isn’t something dead, that it’s something that helps us learn a lesson, and they’ll pick up a book on history and start to read it.
“About two or three times a year I’ll have a kid who has puppet phobia. Sometimes the kid has to leave for a little bit. I get that there are some things you just have an uncontrollable fear of. I personally have a clown phobia. Clowns come out in whiteface, and I’m out of there.
