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Showing posts from July, 2022

"So, who's Piggy?"

Mention letting kids be free in the woods, and it's quite likely you'll hear a reference to the dystopian novel  Lord of the Flies , by William Golding .   Even classroom teachers will quip about unruly students by comparing them to Golding's dark story of boys gone wild and murderous with power.  That's not to say that the novel doesn't draw on real human societal flaws, but when we look closely at how children behave when left to their own devices, there is much more to be learned, and not just by the observers.  This week, when our campers played with the concept of heirarchy, among similar comments one parent's response to a letter we posted about it was "So, who's Piggy?"   Consider the real experience of six boys from the island of  Haʻafeva,  Tonga, who found themselves marooned on a small, desolate island for 15 months completely alone.  Spoiler alert - smart and thoughtful Piggy doesn't get killed in the end, and power-hungry Jack n...