Bananaphone

I had a fling once, with a guy who liked all different kinds of music. One morning, we chose to make out while listening to Raffi (not just for Kindergarten anymore!).

Featured on this playlist:
Baby Beluga
Brush Your Teeth

and of course,
Bananaphone

the other day, when i was meeting with my Jumpstart Team Leaders, i thought about this fling and realized that the fact that i had it sort of justifies several things that i claim to value.

firstly, and least importantly:
the importance of play

in Jumpstart, i spend a lot of time trying to communicate to undergrads the importance of play in the lives of the preschool children they mentor. like, rather than sitting and doing a worksheet about the letter A, it's much more meaningful to a 4 year old to learn about the letter A withing a relevant context, while pursuing their own interests (like, noticing that the letter A is in the name of the friend who is sitting next to them as they do a fingerpainting activity together).

i don't remember the context, really, though i frequently refer to a recent Obama comment about education needs to be rethought if we don't want to "raise kids who only know how to fill in a bubble [on a test]".

when you play (fingerpainting, or humorous making out, etc), you grow into a unique, sentient human different from other unique, sentient humans.

secondly,
Not Taking Onesself Seriously

i find this so important that i don't have much to say about it, it should be intuitive and if it's not...then it might be too late already. suffice it to say that if you fail at not taking yourself too seriously, you are really setting yourself up for a shitty (or at least really boring) life.

thirdly,
have you heard Bananaphone? it's hilarious.