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Beginnings Professional Development Workshop
■Laughter and Humor — Not Just Kids’ Stuff
by John Morreall
Humor
Photo by www.sxc.hu/profile/vancity197
■What Makes Young Children Laugh? A Developmental Perspective
by Diane E. Levin
■Seeing and Appreciating Children’s Humor
by Deb Curtis
■In Pursuit of Mirth
by Sharon Linde
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Laughter and Humor — Not Just Kids’ Stuff
by John Morreall
“The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not
laughed.”
Nicolas Chamfort, French playwright, 1741-1794
At the beginning of dinner at the home of friends recently,
five-year-old Sophie looked at me and said with a grin,
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten.” Knowing
the joke, I asked with gusto, “What happened to nine?”
Triumphantly, she answered, “Seven ate nine.” There was
laughter all around the table, except from her four-year-old
sister. Having studied humor for 35 years, I knew that most
children don’t get jokes based on homonyms (words that
sound alike) until they’re about seven, so I wanted to congratulate my friends on their daughter’s precociousness.
But then I remembered the ‘false-positive’ my own son
Jordan showed at age four, in a test I devised to see if he
could understand humor based on homonyms. His best
friends at preschool were Ben and Jamie, so I had prepared a knock-knock joke playing with the sound of “Ben.”
“Knock knock,” I said.
“Who’s there?” he replied.
“Ben,” I said.
“Ben who?” he asked.
“Ben to Chicago?” I said in a rising tone, watching to see if
Jordan would laugh. He did — heartily.
Then he said, “Dad, I’ve got one. Knock, knock.”
Wow, I thought to myself, he’s not only years ahead of
schedule, but he’s going to be a comedy writer! “Who’s
there?” I said.
John Morreall, Ph.D. is President of Humorworks, a consulting firm through
which he offers seminars on the benefits of humor. He is also Professor of
Religious Studies at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
John’s five books on humor include Humor Works, published by Human
Resource Development Press. He has done over 500 seminars in North
America, Europe, and Japan. His clients include Head Start, IBM, and the
IRS.
“Jamie,” he answered.
“Jamie who?” I asked. “Jamie to Chicago?” he said, exploding in laughter.
Jordan had found my “Ben to Chicago?” punch line funny,
but only as a piece of nonsense, not as a switch from
“Ben” to the sound-alike “Been.” His sense of humor, like
that of most 3 to 5 year olds, was based mostly on simple
surprise, not on clever word play. He had created a comic
format — say your friend’s name and add “to Chicago?” —
but that kind of material was not likely to get him steady
work in Hollywood.
I didn’t want to ruin the pleasant dinner at Sophie’s house
by testing to see if she really got the word-switch in her
counting joke. But whether or not she appreciated homonym humor, it was clear that she had learned one of life’s
basic lessons — that we welcome our guests with entertaining conversation.
In the Beginnings Workshop in the September/October
2012 issue of Exchange, several contributors explored the
nature and benefits of play and its essential place in early
education. To their comments I would add that humor is
an integral part of young children’s play, as it is of human
play generally. When children are feeling secure and happy
with other children, or with adults, laughter is the most
natural sound. According to a factoid that has circulated
for years, preschoolers laugh 200-300 times a day while
adults laugh only 15-20 times a day. I’ve never found a reliable source for those numbers, but I do know that schools
— from ­kindergartens to graduate and professional programs — ­systematically suppress laughter. In school, the
child with musical ability may be sent to the music room,
and the one with artistic skill may go to the art room, but
the child with the good sense of humor is sent to the
­principal’s office.
One thing that gets suppressed by schools along with
humor and laughter is emotional range. Most young
­children have at least a dozen faces, but many adults limp
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through life with two or
three faces — or worse,
just that all-purpose
Professional Cool face.
Knowing when and how to
engage in humor, is part of
emotional intelligence.
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One thing that gets suppressed by schools
along with humor and laughter
is emotional range.
Something else from early
childhood that gets suppressed along with humor and
laughter is divergent, creative thinking. Putting ideas from
different realms of experience together in surprising ways
comes naturally to 3 and 4 year olds. But schools don’t
­foster such thinking, largely because it is hard to measure
and grade. Instead, they emphasize convergent thinking —
finding the single right answer to a pre-formulated question. That’s why in school we have answered hundreds of
multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-blank questions by
the time we’re out of college, but we are rarely asked an
open-ended question that has no single correct answer.
The difference between young children’s divergent thinking
and school’s convergent thinking struck me years ago
when I took my 3-year-old niece to a county fair. It was
crowded, so I carried her on my shoulder. When she saw a
vendor selling cotton candy, she said, “Please, I want
some.” I asked, “What is it you want, Amanda?” “Ice cream
fur,” she answered. What a great name for cotton candy,
I thought — it covers not just the fluff at the top but the
cone at the bottom! But any child who called cotton candy
‘ice cream fur’ in school would soon be corrected. And if
two adults were walking through a county fair and one
said, “Let’s get some of that ice cream fur,” the other
would probably be puzzled rather than amused.
Numerous studies of play in children and other young animals suggest that play allows them to develop physical
and mental abilities in an enjoyable way in a safe environment. Physical play allows them to test the limits of their
speed, balance, and coordination, and learn to cope with
unexpected situations, such as being chased by a new
kind of predator. Colts at play don’t just run, but make
split-second turns at high speeds. Young monkeys play by
leaping not just from branch to branch, but from trees into
rivers. Children at play not only run, but skip, dance, and
do cartwheels and somersaults.
Humor also allows children to test the limits of their
­abilities — only the skills in humor are mental rather than
physical. The simplest kind of humor in young children is
exercising some cognitive skill in an inappropriate way,
such as by saying something that’s obviously false, like
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“Daddy [is] baby.” The fun
is in violating a pattern that
the child has learned.
Psychologists call that
­violation of a mental
­pattern ‘incongruity.’
The child psychologist Jean
Piaget (in McGhee, 1979)
reported that in her second year, his daughter Lucien held
a leaf to her ear, talking as if it were a telephone, and
laughing. At 18 months, Jacqueline, his other daughter,
pretended to eat things like paper, saying “Very nice.”
She would also say “soap” and rub her hands together,
but without any soap or water (Piaget, 1991).
The psychologist Paul McGhee (1979) distinguishes four
stages in the development of humor. The first, arising in
the child’s second year, he calls ‘Incongruous Actions
toward Objects.’ Here the child knowingly does something
inappropriate with an object, for fun. Piaget’s daughters
pretending that a leaf is a telephone and paper is food,
are examples.
McGhee’s second stage of humor is ‘Incongruous Labeling
of Objects and Events.’ This kind of play arises only after
the child has become comfortable with the names of
­familiar things, actions, and events. A few months after
her second birthday, Piaget’s daughter Jacqueline pointed
to a rough stone and said, “It’s a dog.” When he asked
her, “Where is its head?” she answered, “There,” pointing
to a lump on the stone. “And its eyes?” he continued.
“They’ve gone!” she said (in McGhee 1979; see Piaget
1991).
The incongruous labeling of objects and events gradually
develops into McGhee’s Stage 3, ‘Conceptual Incongruity.’
Once children are comfortable with concepts like Mommy,
Daddy, baby, dog, and cat, and know their standard
­features, they can playfully violate conceptual patterns.
Knowing that dogs bark while cats meow, for example,
the child can laugh at the reverse. The child psychologist
Kornei Chukovsky (1963) described how his daughter,
at 23 months, came up with her first joke:
“My daughter came to me, looking mischievous and
embarrassed at the same time — as if she were up to
some intrigue. . . . She cried to me even when she was still
at some distance from where I sat: ‘Daddy, oggie-miaow!’
[Doggy-meow]. . . . And she burst out into somewhat
encouraging, somewhat artificial laughter, inviting me,
too, to laugh at this invention.”
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In Stage 3 children are highly visual, and so pictures of
incongruous situations
make them laugh, such as
a drawing of a flying elephant, or of a giraffe’s head
sticking out a chimney.
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Something else from early childhood that
gets suppressed along with humor and
laughter is divergent, creative thinking.
situation that can delight
us. Our laughter, like the
laughter of children, is a
play signal to others that
they can relax and rise
above the problem, too.
McGhee Stage 4 is ‘Multiple
Meanings’; it includes the homonym humor mentioned at
the beginning of this article and is the basis for riddles
such as:
“Why won’t you ever be hungry in the desert?”
“Because of the sand which is there.”
Here a word or phrase — ‘sand which is’ — sounds like
another word or phrase — ‘sandwiches.’ The fun is in
switching between the two meanings.
From age eight on, children’s humor gradually develops
into grown-up humor, with cleverness and storytelling style
becoming more important.
The second main benefit
of humor is that it makes
us mentally flexible. When we think funny, we are better
able to cope with mistakes and failure, both our own and
other people’s. That makes us better at picking ourselves
up and thinking of creative solutions. Numerous studies
have shown that groups who have just engaged in humor
and then take a test of creative problem-solving think of
more ­solutions, and a wider range of solutions, than do
control groups.
The third benefit of humor is that it serves as a social
­lubricant, smoothing out the rough spots in our relations
with each other. When we have to give or receive criticism,
for example, a little humor makes the whole process much
­easier.
The mental play of humor is beneficial not only for the
­children we care for, but for ourselves. In our work and in
our lives generally, humor has three main benefits
(Morreall, 1997). First, it is physically and psychologically
healthy. Hearty laughter gives our hearts and lungs a workout, as we take in six times more oxygen than when we are
simply talking. After vigorous laughter, too, blood pressure,
heart rate, and muscle tension all drop to below normal,
and stay below normal for up to 45 minutes. Laughter also
reduces our sensitivity to physical pain and boosts our
immune systems, so that people who laugh more are less
susceptible to infectious diseases.
In these and other ways, humor is an essential part of
human life. Instead of suppressing it, as traditional schools
did, we need to encourage it — in our children and in
­ourselves.
Both physically and psychologically, humor is the opposite
of stress. When we joke about a problem at school or at
home, for example, instead of responding as helpless
­victims and being stressed out by it, we creatively rise
above it and play with it. We put ‘mental distance’ between
ourselves and the problem. Blocking negative emotions
like anger, fear, and sadness, we think of something in the
Morreall, J. (1997). Humor works. Amherst, MA: Human
Resource Development Press.
References
Chukovsky, K. (1963). From two to five. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.
McGhee, P. (1979). Humor: Its origin and development.
San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
Piaget, J. (1991). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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What Makes Young Children Laugh?
A Developmental Perspective
by Diane E. Levin
A mother waves hello to her baby and then ducks down to hide behind the footboard of the crib. The baby immediately
bursts into tears. Feeling guilty, the mother rushes over to comfort her baby. A month later, she carefully tries the same
routine. She bends down, and then as she pops up and waves “hello,” her baby starts laughing hysterically. She and the
baby repeat the process over and over, with laughter resulting each time she reappears.
An 18-month old has taken a recent interest in naming animals, often pointing and saying “dog” or “cat.” A couple of
months later, her father points to a cat and says “dog.” The baby starts laughing and says “dog!” After playing this game
for several days with her father, she takes the lead pointing to a dog and saying “cat” and giggling excitedly. And
eventually, she points at her father and says “Mommy,” and starts laughing.
What do these two examples of baby’s laughter have in common? In both cases, the babies find humor when the grownup plays or creates a game with vital cognitive-developmental skills the children have recently mastered — object
permanence, in the first case, and language skills for categorizing and naming objects in the second. The children are
using concepts they learned in past experiences to frame expectations about new situations and events (Scarlett et al.,
2005). And they react with laughter and surprise as their current rules and expectations for how things work are violated
— in a way that feels playful and safe, not scary. The first time the mother played peek-a-boo with her baby when he
burst into tears, he had not yet developed enough confidence in his understanding of object permanence to be able to
play a humorous game with it. So he got scared instead. But a couple of months later, he was ready.
It was probably Piaget who first identified this underlying pattern in young children’s sense of humor; namely, that
­children’s current level of cognitive growth plays an important role in determining what they will find funny (Flavell, 1977;
Piaget, 1951). And as children feel more familiar and confident using a new concept, they may even begin to create the
humor themselves. The second child does this when she takes over the role of misnaming the animals and then her
father. She has turned the joke into a playful game. Her humor brings her the pleasure that can come from the new
­masteries in her world.
When children experience playful jokes about what they have recently learned, their understanding deepens and it spurs
them on to achieve new learnings with the accompanying humor. Thus, humor in childhood is more than just a joke. It
can be a vital part of every child’s development and learning. And it gives us a window into what is currently meaningful
and interesting to them.
References
Flavell, J. (1977). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Piaget, J. (1951). Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
Scarlett, W. G., Naudean, S., Salonius-Pasaternak, D., & Ponte, I. (2005). Children’s play. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Diane Levin is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. For over 25 years, she has trained early childhood
professionals to promote constructivist learning and play and to resist the forces that promote remote-controlled teaching and learning. She can be reached
at dlevin@wheelock.edu.
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Reprinted with permission from Exchange magazine.
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Seeing and Appreciating
Children’s Humor
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by Deb Curtis
Children laugh on average
200 times per day.
Adults laugh 15-18 times each day.
Babies in the Bath
One morning I offered my toddlers tubs filled
with sudsy water so they could give the baby
dolls a bath. The ­children spent quite a bit of
time doing what I expected: splashing the
water, dunking the babies, and covering them
with the sparkly bubbles floating in the tubs.
Then, as often happens, one of the
children had a new idea. Oona
climbed into a tub and looked up
with a grin. This idea sparked
Caleb to do the same, and the
two of them looked at each other
­sitting in the tubs and began to
laugh. Hannah had another plan;
she decided to squeeze into the
tub with Caleb. Much to Caleb’s
chagrin, Hannah began to laugh
uproariously at what she thought
was an even funnier idea.
It was wonderful to see the children engaged in this humorous
moment, joining together in
enjoyment and laughter. I have
often observed children sharing
a good laugh, which has sparked
my fascination in what children think is humorous and why.
As I have been observing for examples of humor, I’ve also
been studying resources about the development of humor
in young children. I am curious about the significance of
humor in children’s development and how my responses to
their humor can support their learning and relationships. I
also believe that I can learn from the children and bring
more fun to my work and life.
Deb has worked as an educator of children and adults for over 30
years. She has co-authored several books with Margie Carter, where she
feels grateful to have deepened so many ideas through that process.
Humor is what makes something
funny and a sense of humor is the
ability to recognize it. Humor is
also something that can be
learned and, in turn, helps make
life more enjoyable. Children are
developing a sense of humor
when they recognize what’s funny
and can amuse each other as well. I want
to support children’s innate understanding
of the importance of humor for their lives
and mine. I have learned that what is
funny to toddlers is similar to what makes
most of us laugh: noticing and understanding when things are unconventional,
unusual, and new. If you think about a
comedian that you enjoy, you’ll notice that
they twist ordinary events in surprising
ways that make us laugh.
In studying Jennifer Cunningham’s research
(2005) on the development of humor in
children, I see why my toddlers thought getting into the tubs was so funny:
“A preference for novel events suggests that some of the
pleasure of experiencing humorous events stems from
­children not knowing what to expect. Children’s first
attempts at humor production reflect this understanding
that unexpectedness elicits laughter. Often, the first ‘jokes’
that a toddler makes are nonverbal attempts to create
incongruity, such as placing a toy in her cereal or in her
shoe or on her head” (p. 93).
It’s no wonder children laugh so often; they have been in
the world such a short time and to them almost everything
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is unexpected, unusual,
Silly Routines!
and unconventional. We
Humor is what makes something funny
adults can learn to laugh
For preschoolers, humor
with children if we slow
and a sense of humor is the
that helps them connect
down and ­marvel with them
with each other is often
ability to recognize it.
at the wondrous world they
antagonizing to adults.
see. Humor reflects children’s growing understandSeveral years ago one of
ing of the world around
my groups of preschoolers used humor to connect with
them. Yet, what I notice more is the social nature of
each other and test the boundaries of acceptable behavhumor. Laughing brings more laughing and often the chilior. They often chanted and changed the words to some of
dren will laugh with eager anticipation of others joining in. I
our songs using ‘potty talk.’ Another of their favorite ‘funny’
believe that beyond the learning reflected in humor there
activities was to clean the snack table by running around
is a deep sense of satisfaction that comes from ­sharing
and around, faster and faster,
these moments with each other.
­wiping with the sponges as they
went around. As they moved,
they joined together shouting
with gales of ­laughter.
“Here we are!”
One morning a number of my toddlers crowded around the mirror, smiling and laughing as
they saw each other’s reflections. At one
point they seemed to share a moment of total
connection, which sparked exuberant laughter
and dancing around in a circle. Their laughter
was contagious and as they continued to
dance and laugh, other children joined in.
Cunningham (2005) would
explain children’s humor in this
situation in this way:
Research shows that children laugh approximately 200 times a day, whereas adults
laugh only 15-18 times. And people who
laugh more are healthier, experience less
stress, are less likely to be depressed and
may even have an increased resistance to
illness or physical problems (Kids Health,
2013). The children seem to be on to something that we adults have lost. But why is
this so?
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEB CURTIS
For toddlers, laughter seems to come from the pure thrill
of shared moments of connection with friends, like laughing and dancing together. My observations of the children
support the research that says that laughter is less about
humor and more about creating social connections, where
people build feelings of camaraderie and pay close attention to each other. Again Jennifer Cunningham (2005)
reports:
“Sharing laughter together often serves as the precursor to
other forms of social intimacy. Laughter becomes one of
the earliest and most enduring tools for getting to know
one another. The humor context is so powerful that it
breaks down even difficult social barriers” (p. 95).
“Things that are not OK to say
in some situations are somehow safe when we are only
joking. The pleasure of humor
is in the cognitive realization
that the situation is unreal and
incongruous with the ‘rules’ of
the world, as we know it. As children begin to use their perceptions and past experiences to
formulate expectations about situations and events, they often
react with laughter and surprise
when these expectations are violated” (p. 97).
Negotiating Exuberant Connections
Potty talk reflects the type of humor Cunningham
describes. It seems the more adults are upset by it, the
more hilarious it is for children. They build a sense of
camaraderie around ‘breaking the rules.’ If we as educators can understand that this humor suggests growth in
children’s cognitive abilities and social understandings, we
may be able to embrace the joy and solidarity it brings to
them. We can take some of the power out of it, perhaps
reduce the amount of it children use, if we ignore potty
talk. Or we can join with them in the pure excitement of
their new understandings.
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As to the children’s silly
­running game, I can see the
power and connection the
children felt, but worry
about their safety: the
­children could slip and fall,
or bump into furniture and
get hurt. What am I communicating when I allow the
children to run inside the
classroom? While reflecting,
I challenge myself to see
the
­children’s
points of
view.
When I
pause
to really
see the
children,
my worries
­lessen. I
come to
appreciate
the pleasure and
friendship these
moments bring. I am
learning that humor
is an important and
uniquely human
­element of communication that helps
children build
­relationships with
one another. At the
same time, I need
to negotiate with
the children in this
moment to help keep
them safe. I can honor
the children’s innate
and skillful desire to
connect through humor
while guiding them to
slow down and watch
out for each other as
they joyfully clean the
table. In the words of
Hugh Sidey:
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My observations of the children support
the research that says that laughter is
less about humor and more about creating
social connections, where people build
feelings of camaraderie and pay
close attention to each other.
“A sense of humor . . . is
needed armor. Joy in one’s
heart and some laughter
on one’s lips is a sign that
the person down deep has
a pretty good grasp of life.”
What Do You
Think is Funny and
How Often Do
You Laugh?
If humor is an antidote for
many ills and offers useful ­benefits, then finding ways to
have more of it can brighten our lives. A good sense of
humor is a tool that children and adults can rely on
throughout life to:
nsee things from different perspectives.
nbe spontaneous.
ngrasp unconventional ways of thinking.
nsee beyond the surface of things.
nenjoy and participate in the playful aspects of life
nnot take yourself too ­seriously.
nbuild strong relationships and get along with
­others.
(Nemours Foundation, 2013)
We have a great resource in children when it comes to
increasing the humor, laughter, and joy in our lives. If
you think about the statistic that children laugh 200
times each day. If you are with them even half a day,
that is 100 shared laughs a day. All it takes is slowing
down to see, and appreciate children’s humor!
References
Cunningham, J. (2005). Children’s humor. In
W. G. Scarlett, S. Naudeau, D. SaloniusPastermak, & I. Ponte, Children’s Play (pp.
93-110). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kids Health. (2013). Encouraging your child’s
sense of humor. Kids Health. [Online]
Available at http://kidshealth.org/parent/
growth/learning/child_humor.html
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In Pursuit of Mirth
by Sharon Linde
their faces. It filled us with wonder and amusement and
made our day exciting and fresh. It made us feel lighter,
just being in the presence of mirth.
Positive Climate
PHOTOGRAPH BY BONNIE NEUGEBAUER
Some of my favorite memories of elementary school are of
the class funny-guy, Marty. He was an equal-opportunity
goofball and consistently infused our day with unexpected
breaks of laughter, which would have us all hooting. As an
educator, I realize why those little moments were so
­welcome to us; current research shows humor to be an
effective way of engaging students in active learning.
Laughing and smiling with students increases their level of
comfort and willingness to open up in the classroom. Brain
scans show high levels of activity in multiple areas of the
brain and lower levels of tension when humor is applied in
conversation and instruction. Adults know humor
­maximizes learning and strengthens memory function.
All I knew as a kid was that I loved it. But no matter how
awesome those funny moments were there was something
we all wanted even more. Every so often a colleague would
show up at our door mid-lesson, beckon our teacher to the
hall, and the two of them would whisper furiously before
erupting into uninhibited laughter. We’d look at each other,
at first wondering “Who are these women?” But eventually,
something in their laughter, in the lightness of the mood,
in the uniqueness of the situation, in the contagiousness
of the laughter itself would tiptoe into the room and we’d
begin to feel ourselves smiling and eventually laughing
with them at who knows what. It felt good to see our
­teachers in that spot, free of fussing and bossing. It
­astonished us to recognize their ability to be silly, maybe
even out of control in that hallway, tears streaming down
There are super-smart, savvy directors and administrators
out there who recognize the importance and effect of
laughter, lightheartedness, and mirth in the workplace,
especially in an educational setting, and capitalize on its
effect brilliantly. Knowing the profound impact humor has
on humans, these leaders have established environments
that foster a positive climate and, as a result, boost
employee efficacy, increasing productivity and decreasing
turnover. They recognize the importance of not only fostering humorous experiences consistently, but lead their
­centers in the active pursuit of mirth.
Like many things, it starts at the top. My first experience in
child care was with a dynamic, gregarious director who
laughed loudly and often. My job interview consisted of two
questions: my philosophy of education (which I didn’t
know), and a funny joke (which I did). Being a fan of the
Laffy Taffy brand of humor (How much does a pirate pay to
get his ears pierced? A buck an ear!) keeps me readily
­supplied. And even though she didn’t necessarily find it
funny, she recognized my innate ability to spot and tell a
joke, as well as my joy in sharing it. Because of Terry’s
­dedication to seeing humor in all situations, the center
hummed with insouciance, and staff, children, and families
benefited. It continues to be one of the top child care
­centers in the area.
It wasn’t until I worked for a rather persnickety principal
several years later that I realized the opposite could also
be true. In that school, a bold line could be drawn connectSharon Linde is a freelance writer who has worked in education in the
roles of consultant, adjunct instructor, and curriculum coordinator.
Although these experiences have provided her with a wealth of
knowledge, she finds her first passion, classroom teaching in urban
settings, to be her true ­calling. She currently teaches literacy to fourth
graders in St. Louis.
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EXCHANGE MARCH/APRIL 2013
Beginnings Professional Development Workshop
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ing student behavior, teachers’
­attitudes, and the principal’s degree
of openness to joy. This principal was
a strict task master who expected
quiet attention to learning, overlooking the link between the brain’s
­ability to connect faster and longer
to information presented in exciting,
enjoyable ways. Her mere presence
silently frisked us, raiding our
­pockets of any joy we had managed
to muster.
n One private school transformed
their lounge into a softly lit room
There are super-smart, savvy
with comfortable, individual seating
directors and administrators
for staff to use for refueling, short
naps, and self-administered timeout there who recognize the
outs. Coincidentally, an adjacent
importance and effect of
closet housed the school’s large
collection of props and costumes
laughter, lightheartedness,
for their many performances. It
and mirth in the workplace,
wasn’t long before these two worlds
collided. As one teacher put it, “You
especially in an educational
never knew what you’d encounter
coming into the lounge. It could be
setting, and capitalize on
Abe Lincoln sitting there reading Fostering Efficacy
its effect brilliantly.
Glamour, or the super-serious
Amidst Chaos
chemistry teacher donning rabbit
ears. It just lightened your mood,
When I was an educational consul
seeing
it.
And
once
I
started participating, that was even
tant, I visited several schools a week. Like classrooms,
better. Making someone else laugh was powerful. We
each building has its own personality. Schools that actively,
couldn’t get enough of it.”
intentionally infused positive practices via humor inherently felt lighter, brighter, and more ­welcoming. The good news
is the methods these schools employed were simple. Here
are a few easy-to-implement ideas:
nSome schools chose to plan hilarity the same way
they plan phonics. Teachers include humor in their
­lesson plans, recognizing how using comedy breathes
life into their work. Common themes include silliness,
dress-up, ­‘accidental’ slap-stick, or straight out jokes.
These teachers have found that children feel an
increased connection to their teacher through this
­‘hidden’ side, much like I did as a child, and are grateful
for it. Planning for these moments made teachers more
aware of the importance of infusing them throughout
the day; eventually it became ­second nature.
nThe concept was simple: Take all those funny, quirky,
silly, often odd things children say throughout the
day, remember them, and post them on the wall for
all to see and share in. This is what one staff at a
­particularly high-stress, inner-city school did to address
the problem of the staff lounge becoming a breeding
ground for ­negativity. The “Climate Committee” put up
a bulletin board titled “Did You Really Just Say That?”
On a table beneath the board were pre-cut air
­bubbles, markers, and push pins. Teachers not only
became more aware of how often light moments
occurred, they found their attention to the positive
changed the atmosphere in their rooms. Soon the
lounge transformed from a place of complaint to
one of awareness of the opportunity for fun that was
available every day.
Bottom line: Your intention to ­establish a mirthful environment is all you need to get started.
If You Build It . . .
Getting started can be daunting, so keep it simple.
Practically speaking, take it one bite at a time. Even if
you’re starting from scratch, a ­simple, step-by-step
PHOTOGRAPH BY BONNIE NEUGEBAUER
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Beginnings Professional Development Workshop
approach is best. First, determine
your goals: What do you want to see
and when? Keep it realistic. Most
centers and schools begin the
­pursuit of ­happiness because they
recognize a decline in staff morale
and want to boost it. If you appreciate how humor contributes to
­student achievement, perhaps your
goal should be to infuse laughter
into each ­lesson.
Knowing the profound impact
humor has on humans, these
leaders have established
environments that foster a
positive climate and, as a result,
boost employee efficacy,
increasing productivity and
decreasing turnover.
They recognize the importance
of not only fostering humorous
experiences consistently, but
leading their centers in the
active pursuit of mirth.
Once you’ve set your goals, it’s time
to make an action plan. If you want
to lighten the mood, try eliminating
­problems first. Or, look for areas that
take the fun out of the center and
brainstorm solutions. Big change
often takes bold moves. As the
schools above found, once ­systems
are in place, the naturally varying
personalities of teachers will mold
the experience into something that works for everyone.
Use your instincts, use your resources, and use your imagination. If you’re already thinking you need more lightness
in your space, trust that. You likely do. Sometimes the
teachers you’d least expect to get involved are your most
valuable resource. Approach them and ask for their ideas
and input. Empower your staff to come up with a committee to share ideas and responsibility for getting things
started (maybe devising a clever name to describe their
charge).
HUMOR
MARCH/APRIL 2013 EXCHANGE
Avoiding the Pitfalls
I’ve worked with many well-intentioned people in leadership positions who find themselves in the
middle of this venture with unresponsive staff or no results to show.
The first thing we look for in these
situations is delivery: think of what
a teacher says and does, and how it
is said and done, to generate positive responses from students. And
then do that. Beware of taking on
too much, too soon. Plan to proceed
with baby steps and make long-term
goals. Finally, be aware of timing.
Bringing this ‘new’ idea to staff
when parent conferences or other
heavy work times are occurring is a
recipe for disaster. Think of when
teachers have the greatest energy
and motivation and plan your
launch date accordingly.
Keeping the Momentum
We’ve all been there: all enthusiastic at the start, but once
the newness and momentum wear off, it isn’t as much
fun. Avoid this dynamic by planning for it in advance.
Predicting the lulls is impossible, so instead be prepared
to intercede with little pick-me-ups you’ve developed in
advance. Have a bag of tricks at the ready. Have your
­committee keep their
PHOTOGRAPH BY BONNIE NEUGEBAUER
­fingers on the pulse of
other staff. I’ve seen
grown women giggle
unabashedly when a
staff meeting was
replaced with a memo.
Surprise them with a
substitute for duty
time. Push off a
­deadline to next week.
Keep your goal in
mind, and find little
ways to see that big
picture. And, in a
pinch, Laffy Taffy
has the goods.
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READING MATTERS
EXCHANGE
MARCH/APRIL 2013
Copyright © Exchange Press, Inc.
Reprinted with permission from Exchange magazine.
All rights reserved. Visit us at www.ChildCareExchange.com
or call (800) 221-2864.
www.ChildCareExchange.com
Reading Matters
Elephants and Underwear: Celebrating Humor with Books by Jean Dugan
Jean Dugan, a long-time friend of Exchange, has been connecting kids
Humor is a tricky subject. I’ve seen enough blank stares over
with books for over 40 years. She helped establish a library program in
the years to know that one person’s belly laugh is someone
the ­elementary schools of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and later brought
else’s “huh?” Many have tried, but it takes a very special
her love of children’s literature to the public library there. This is one more
opportunity for her to share the best new books with children and those
author or illustrator to hit the funny bone on the mark.
who care about them.
Nevertheless, there is a great wealth of humor in children’s
­literature, and many of the best children’s books are truly funny, in word or ­pictures or both. From existential to clever to very,
very silly, even a book about laughter itself, here are some to read out loud and together. Be prepared for giggles!
Laugh Out Loud Baby by Tony Johnston;
illustrated by Stephen Gammell (Simon
and Schuster, 2012); Ages 2–6.
How many ways are there to laugh? Tony
Johnston shares the Navajo tradition of a
baby’s First Laugh Ceremony, signifying
the child’s readiness to become human.
Stephen Gammell’s illustrations bring a big, sprawling,
diverse crowd to the celebration (as he did in his delightful
Caldecott Medal winner, The Relatives Came). A throng of
relatives and neighbors arrive with their own chuckles,
­guffaws, snickers, snorts, and other varieties of mirth to eat,
kiss, pass the baby around, and wait to hear that heavenly
whoopie-doodle sound of baby laughter. This book would be
a good one to read aloud and laugh along.
The Underwear Book by Todd Parr
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers,
2012); Ages 3–7.
When I asked Ryan “What’s the fun­
niest book you’ve ever read?” he didn’t
miss a beat. “It’s called The Underwear
Book!” he told me before dissolving into kindergarten-style hilarity. And Ryan was right, this
is a very funny book (especially if you’re six and an aficionado of mild bathroom humor). It’s an etiquette book for users
of underwear, accompanied by Todd Parr’s brightly child-like
illustrations: “DO wear new underwear on the first day of
school. DON’T bring it to show and tell.” Parr has a real and
timeless gift for simplicity that’s always right on target,
whether he’s writing about family, environmental or
­emotional issues, or even world peace.
Chopsticks by Amy Krouse
Rosenthal; illustrated by Scott
Magoon (Disney Hyperion Books,
2012); Ages 4–8.
“Chopsticks have been best friends
for . . . forever. They go everywhere
together. They do everything
t­ ogether.” Until one day, trying a fancy move while snagging
a spear of asparagus, there’s a loud “Snap!” and one half of
the pair is out of commission for a week. What’s a single
chopstick to do? It turns out there are many options as the
other half of the pair learns to go solo. Recovery calls for a
toast (the buttered kind): “To standing on our own . . . and
to sticking together!” This follow-up to the author’s Spoon
(not exactly a sequel to Spoon; more like a change in place
­setting) is filled with amusing verbal and visual puns of life
in the silverware drawer.
Elephant and Piggie Series
by Mo Willems (Hyperion Books for
Children); Ages 3–7.
Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad books
were fixtures on my children’s bookshelves in the 1970s and probably
yours as well. The misadventures of
optimistic Frog and pessimistic Toad
in these early readers were easy and
fun for kids to read, and they gave us parents a chance to
laugh at ourselves and our grown-up situations. I still re-read
The List from time to time to bring me to my senses when
control issues threaten to get the better of me. The characters in Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books are worthy
successors, their friendship as enduring, their adventures
as wacky. In their most recent story “Let’s Go for a Drive,”
they assemble everything they could possibly need for an
outing but forget that they don’t have a car. Silly fun. In We
are in a Book, Elephant realizes that “someone is looking at
us,” pulling the reader smack into the middle of the story.
There are now 18 Elephant and Piggie books in the series,
all of them hilarious, all of them accessible to the newest
readers.
Like Arnold Lobel, Mo Willems is a prolific and very funny
writer. If you run out of Elephant and Piggie books, try
Knuffle Bunny, or the Pigeon books, or Cat the Cat, or
Ryan’s first favorite: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.
Laughter guaranteed.