| More than a moral to this Japanese folktale |
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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
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Posted: Sunday, August 10, 2008 7:36 am
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Kindness is a virtue too few possess. Jan Hayes has it by the bushel and wants to impress its importance on the next generation.
Hayes, a retired education professor from MTSU, recently published her first children’s book, “The Split Tongue Sparrow.” The illustrated book is an adaptation of a traditional Japanese folktale, whose moral is kindness pays off in the end, Hayes explained.
“Most folktales have a moral, if not overtly then subtly,” Hayes said.
It was the theme of kindness that drew her to this particular tale, even though she’s collected folktales for 30 years. She’s also a bird lover with feeders dotting the lawn of her Murfreesboro home.
Her interest in folktales and children’s stories grew from teaching children’s literature in MTSU’s education program for more than 30 years. She has even written books on how to teach children’s literature, but this is her first foray into literature.
“Traditional literature is supposed to represent how people in the culture really are with their heroes and good always winning out,” Hayes said.
Hayes’ kindness shows in the accolades she received as an education professor. She won MTSU’s outstanding teacher award three times, was awarding the National Education Association’s National Foundation for the Improvement of Education award – the only higher education professional to receive it – and retired with honors from the university.
“Teaching was my thing,” she said.
But traveling has always been a hobby, and her husband’s job as a well-respected track coach has taken the couple all over the world, She has used the opportunities to collect folktales.
“I do a lot of traveling and I always ask (local people) what children’s story do you like best,” Hayes said.
Hayes first heard the split-tongue sparrow story returning from a trip to China in 1988, where her husband Dean was helping with the Chinese National Track and Field team.
She met up with a former student in Japan, who told her the story but could only write it in Kanji, the Japanese alphabet.
Hayes brought the story back to Murfreesboro, where Ester Seeman, former director of the Japan Center at MTSU, translated it into English.
Hayes then adapted it into English and had another former student translate the adapted story back into Kanji, which can be found at the end of the book.
Another role of folktales is to impress a culture’s virtues and customs on the reader or listener, she explained.
“Folktales always have a representation of the culture of the people,” Hayes said. “So it can be used to introduce different cultures to children.”
Hayes and illustrator Bobby Dawson from O’More College of Design in Franklin portrayed basic themes of Japanese culture in the book, from cherry blossoms to kimonos, along with the overarching moral of the tale.
The book is currently available from its publisher, O’More Publishing (www.omorepublishing.com) for $14 per copy. Hayes said the book should be available from Barnes and Noble and on Amazon.com in the near future.
All proceeds from the book will benefit the Hilliard Institute for Educational Wellness, a new center at O’ More that is based on whole teaching and learning research and the application of innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.
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