The ending for the stories were different. They did not come near the one in the typed copy carried by the resource person. Each group of students in Class VIII ‘D' of Virudhunagar Hindu Nadar Higher Secondary School had something new to add to the original story. The Hindu -Newspaper in Education session on ‘Spin a yarn' on Monday provided ample scope for the children to think differently.
The resource person, Y. Jothi, read out half the story and asked the children to come out with an ending by adding characters and situations. This exercise was done twice during the session (the stories of ‘Scared Hare' and ‘Chottu and Curly Tail' were read out) and on both occasions the students came out with brilliant conclusions — an ending and a moral.
In the case of both the stories, the plot line of the students, who were divided into four groups, contained harmony, triumph and other good things in life. There was no conflict or defeat in what they conceived as the remainder of the story. They also closely followed the original plot and came out with answers even before the resource person could complete her questions. One student had this moral for the Chottu story: “Do not be afraid of win or loss. Just compete.”
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They were also asked about the situations which warranted “making up a story.” Coming late to school was one instance for which the “story” was “delay in arrival of autorickshaw.” The children also got to know about news stories published in newspapers. The session concluded with a student narrating the tale of a golden goose.