Jim and his friends are upset to hear that their school janitor’s car has been stolen, and just before he’s due to retire too. So Jim comes up with a bright idea for a way to help raise money to buy a new car: selling doughnuts. They start by making their own very delicious doughnuts to sell, but run into problems when demand exceeds supply. That’s when Jim has another brainwave and decides the only way to make enough is to write a chain letter asking people to make more doughnuts. The doughnuts start rolling in and rolling in and soon Jim is up to his ears in them. It takes another inspired business idea to rescue a situation which is rapidly getting out of hand.
'You are only afraid of the dark,' Mrs Barn Owl said, 'because you don't know about it,' and she sent Plop down to talk with all sorts of people on the ground below. 'Dark is exciting,' said a little boy on Bonfire Day, 'Dark is fun,' said a boy scout guarding a camp-fire, and 'Dark is wonderful,' said an astronomer. In fact there wasn't one single person who didn't like the dark, but it made no difference to poor Plop; he was still scared of it - until he talked it over with another animal, a black, night-walking cat.
Most educators are skilled at planning instruction and determining what they will do during the course of a lesson. However, to truly engage students in worthwhile, rigorous cognition, a profound shift is necessary: a shift in emphasis from teaching to learning. Put another way, we know that whoever is doing the work is also doing the learning and in most classrooms, teachers are working much too hard.
