Saturday, January 12, 2008

Recovery

Here in Fangorn, as the estimable Kelly F. so aptly described it, folks are slowly returning from the abyss of fever and illness.

I am feeling better but my voice has assumed either a basso timbre or gasping squeak reminiscent of small animated animals. Therefore I am forgoing speech altogether this morning or as Treebeard pointed out to Entling no. 3, "Be alert, she's using sign language."


This has reminded me of the time I totally lost my voice when I was librarian-ing full time.

As each class came in I seated them and began to write on the board that I had no voice and they would have to follow written directions for our lesson that day. I don't recall exactly what I had them do but I had the directions on the overhead projector and I revealed each step as we proceeded.

Amazingly, as I was silent, so were the kids. They read my instructions (and interjections, "Horatio, stop tipping your chair) aloud as I wrote them on the board but as they realized that I was truly voiceless, they lowered their own voices to the point where everyone was whispering. I daresay the effect would not have lasted an entire day but for the 45 minutes they were in the library, we experienced some of the quietest lessons and browsing ever in my usually noisy and boisterous library.


Ha, I just pointed to my coffee cup ="please refill my coffee!" and Entling no. 3 did so, whispering, "here you go, Mom."

1 comment:

Ladytink_534 said...

I've found that most people tend to match your voice whenever possible especially if you're sick. May don't realize they're doing it either.