Tales from the Tattle Phone

This morning I heard a fantastic podcast and a clip from This American Life about pre-school children and their non-stop tattling on each other. I didn’t know this was a big deal, however, when I asked my daughter (who is a pre-school teacher), she said it’s a massive deal in class.

With the permission of parents and the pre-school staff, a journalist installed an old, red wall phone in the classroom that recorded the voices of the children. He put a sign over the phone that said “Tattle Phone” and recorded a message that thanked the child for calling and asked them to “Tell the Whole Story” of their complaint. This was a bit hit with the kids, and the phone was busy all day.

The comments are priceless; two of my favorites are from young girls. One stated in a soft voice about a boy: “who farted in my face.” Seconds later, she added: “and the worst part was he didn’t say he was sorry.” Another started by saying, “Thank you for taking my call. I have to go now.” About an hour later, the same girl called in again and said: “I just wanted to say I’m sorry I had to go.”

Children aren’t afraid to say what’s on their mind. We could all learn something from “Tales from the Tattle Phone.”