The Secret-Keeper

I am reading the book The Secret-Keeper with my students as I teach them about inferencing, outlining and summarizing.  Two students read it and they each had differing views about the book.

This fairy tale story was about Kalli and she was the secret-keeper in the Village of Maldinga.  She kept the secrets of the people where she hid them in little boxes in her own house.  One day she got ill caused of having the responsibility to carry all the woes and sorrows of the people.  The villagers decided that it was time for them to share their secrets, happy secrets at this point and everything went well.  There was one person in the story named Taln who had never spoken to Kalli about his secret until he finally told her that his secret was, "I love the secret-keeper."

There was one part of the book that intrigued me and this was when there was a differentiation between 'sorrowful' secrets and 'happy' ones.  I took the time to speak about these two things to my students and we shared our secrets. One was adamant as she thought I was asking about her deep, deep secrets but I assured her that these exercise was meant as a positive sharing.

Here goes some of my 'sorrowful' secrets:
- that I cried so hard when my trip to Europe didn't materialize
- that I really want to connect to my parents 
- that I am sick physically and I am ignoring the signs

Here are some of my 'happy' secrets:
- that I will continue to smile and enjoy people
- that I really care for children and for teaching
- that I want to be somewhere else for growth, work-wise 

By acknowledging what I regretted, what I am depress with, and with what I am longing for, it is time to attend to these matters. Like one great friend said, "Be happy and set goals everyday."