Miss Daisy

"It was the forty-second year she had taught fourth grade," and the A's through GR's were thinking that Miss Daisy had probably seen her better days. A mouse entered the classroom through an open door while the frail figure of a teacher stood before her desk on the first day of school. Her new class thought they were about to see the old woman wither -- or worse. What followed, however, convinced them that this would not be an ordinary year in elementary school.

In fact, Miss Daisy didn't use established methods or materials; piles of textbooks lined her closets -- their brown paper wrappers never removed. What Miss Daisy did employ was the imagination of her fourth-graders as she led them on a year-long world tour. They computed the efficiency of their cars, the volume of their luggage, duration of railway journeys, but they never opened a math book. They memorized the names of faraway places, but never studied spelling. They assessed the terrain ahead before setting out on each leg of the journey, but never opened the geography text.

Through it all, Miss Daisy became their champion, thwarting the school board's attempts to "educate" the fourth grade at Sulpher Springs School.

Seen and heard on CNN, Nightline, and American Public Radio's Good Evenng, Donald Davis has told stories for audiences throughout the United States, the British Isles, Indonesia, and New Zealand. He is the author of eight books, including Listening for the Crack of Dawn, winner of the Anne Izard Storyteller's Choice Award.