There is a very quiet girl in one of my classes. She has hardly spoken to us, her teachers, let alone spoken with other students in the class. Last week my co-teacher asked if I had noticed the drawing she was making. I had picked up on the fact that she was drawing one of the cheeriest, cartoon-like tombstones I had ever seen, but I had overlooked the detail of it reading "R.I.H.," rather than the traditional "R.I.P."
We held a group critique a few days later. Quiet little mouse girl gets up to present her piece, and with startling confidence, tells the class about her project.
"We were supposed to create an imaginary place, so this is my gravestone, because I want to be cremated, and this place will never exist. It says R.I.H., which means Rest In Hell, because that's where I will be going."
No one responded to this. How could you? My fellow teacher gently, and with few words, challenged the quiet young girls assumption about her fate. Despite the brazen declaration of her post-mortem punishment, I had to respect the girl's defense.
"I just think there will be more interesting people to hang out with down there."
Well played quiet girl.
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