Inside the Classroom (and Out): How We Learn through Folklore

Inside the Classroom (and Out): How We Learn through Folklore. Edited by Kennedi L. Untiedt. Publications of the Texas Society LXII. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2005. Pp. xiv + 322, preface, photographs, illustrations, index. $29.95cloth) The twenty-five essays in this collection are linked, for the most part, by a focus on how folklore plays a fundamental role in the learning process in many areas (viii) . Their original dates of composition are not in every case given, but they seem to range from the 1960s to the present day. The articles themselves are a hodgepodge, ranging from scholarly to amateur, from analytic to anecdotal, from classroom pedagogy to undigested collections of texts to nostalgic recollections of Texas schools in the early twentieth century. Perhaps a quarter of the essays have litde apparent relationship to the stated theme of die book, although several of them (including those by Rodenberger and Pinkerton) are effective and moving memoirs of early twentieth century Texas teachers. The book as a whole does not have a clear audience - teachers? folklorists? members of the Texas Society? What the essays do have in common is Texas. Some will hold litde interest for non-Texans. The book is divided into five sections. The Early Years includes two brief and very basic essays/lectures by Mody Boatright and Cynthia Savage on defining folklore, brief articles on the use of folklore in daycare centers and on Boy Scout folklore, an article on using Fauldess Starch pamphlets from the early twentieth as a source for children's folklore, and Barbara Morgan-Fleming's essay Folklore in Schools: Connections Between and Education, a stimulating and useful ethnography of a fifth grade classroom. Morgan-Fleming applies concepts of emergence, framing and linguistic competence to focus on the oral improvisational nature of teaching, in ways that can be direcdy used by teachers to create tradition and community in the classroom. It is the best essay in the book. Part Two, The High School Years, includes a very brief account of a survey of folk medicine beliefs among high school students, collections of folklore related to yearbooks and cheerleaders, and a short piece on perceptions of high school football coaches. Part Three, A Tribute to Paul Patterson, is dedicated to a recendy deceased teacher, storyteller and cowboy poet, derived from a special session at the 1990 Texas Society meeting. A touching tribute to an obviously beloved individual, it bears litde relationship to the rest of the book. Part Four, College Years, includes brief articles on campus ghost stories and on the history of female participation in campus rodeos, a one-page article on black-eyed peas, and a pair of anecdotal memoirs about early Texas educators, and is perhaps the book's greatest disappointment. …

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