No fighting

Written by: Nancy Hall
Performed by:
Nancy Hall – guitar and vocals
Lee parvin – piano
Jon Lancelle – acoustic bass
John Uland – drums

The Story -

I am a preschool music teacher two mornings a week. I love it.
It is one of those instances where my fairy godmother said (to no one in particular) “This woman will never survive in a regular job. We’d better fix her up somewhere where she can show up in plaid pajamas and roll around on the floor with maracas”. Thank-you fairy God Mother!

One thing about the job is that I have to break up fights between four year olds. They can be quite violent when angry, and they have no concept yet of the harm they can do, as in the famous
“face grab” that involves grabbing a handful of your opponents face and trying to actually rip the whole cheek and maybe part of the eyeball free of the skull.

I found myself having to explain in simple, clear terms why violence is not the answer. “If you try to rip the flesh off of Hannah’s face, she will want to do that back to you, and that really, really hurts a lot!” Then there is the U.N. conflict resolution component - “next time, use you words”.

After doing this for a few years while at the same time watching the world dissolve into chaos and warfare, I decided some people had forgotten the lessons of pre-school and maybe needed reminding. With the peace movement, in all of it’s eloquence, failing and everyone shouting “It’s MINE” and tugging so hard they both break the thing they desire, I thought “maybe if we talk to them like the four year olds they are acting like…”