CHAPTER 3: JUMPING MOUSE

 NARRATIVE LEARNING: The power of a meaning filled story.

Our first night around the campfire, I ask student volunteers to read aloud Jumping Mouse, the Cheyenne teaching legend by Hyemeyohsts Storm.  

I changed the gender of the lead character at a time when powerful leading female characters were uncommon.  So Jumping Mouse became her story.

I ask forgiveness from Hyemeyohsts.  Since his most important teacher was a Holy Woman, and Zero Chief, I hope that he approves.

Once there was a Mouse. She was a Busy Mouse...

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Jumping Mouse walked into my new office/classroom at Area D Alternative School in LAUSD. As the first School Without Walls Coordinator I taught classes and acted as the schools special projects director in a K-12 school where students came to me to petition for new classes.

The first petitioned for an Earbook Class where they could write and perform music, cut a Earbook Album (in place of a traditional yearbook) and include photo sleeve yearbook-like inserts.

Monday morning the second petition carried by a very charming group of little kids landed on my desk like an eagle returning to nest.  The envisioned ab elementary level framework for a class they had already named: The Littlest Songwriters. They would allow bigger kids to join but not take over. I began laying the foundation to make that happen as well. 

Joyce Yarrow walks into my office after school. She hands to me a studio master (cassette) and an empty album cover as we sit down.  “The actual album will be cut at the end of the week, but you can listen to this studio master recording.” 

I’m skeptical but curiosity keeps the door open.

Joyce is a community volunteer looking to contribute her song writing talents to our school but I need to see how student centered will be her approach. I invite the petitioning kids to a meeting on Wednesday.  With the kids asking interview questions, Joyce seems happy to audition.

She breaks out her guitar and begins the first lesson for the Littlest Songwriters.

“When you write lyrics for a song, you put the verb up front.

If you’ve written:  A crystal lake into which I dive.

For song lyrics you’d write:  I dive into a crystal lake.”

Oh. Before closing, I should say the title on Joyce’s album jacket was Jumping Mouse. She received special permission from Hyemeyohsts Storm to write their legend into music and produce and album.  You should hear it after you read the story.

As the School Without Walls coordinator, I was hired to lead learning expeditions for our students.  The first was a Marine Biology Expedition to Morro Bay where Joyce volunteered to sing the story of Jumping Mouse as we sat around a campfire, in a way similar to how Cheyenne elders told their legend to their grandchildren around a crackling fire.