Bon Voyage, Flat Cooper!

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending."
--Jim Henson, American puppeteer

Meet Flat Cooper. He's been our regular travel companion this Spring and has made stops in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Zhongshan, Guangzhou, NYC, Washington, DC, and numerous airports in between! Looking at the Facebook previews we've posted, Flat Cooper's "Mom" back home in the US says, "I want to be Flat Cooper!"

For those of you not familiar with the children's book Flat Stanley written by Jeff Brown in 1964, let me fill you in: Stanley Lambchop is a young kid who inadvertently gets "flattened" when a bulletin board falls on him one night while he's sleeping. He survives, of course, and makes the most of his altered state by doing things only a "flat kid" can do! He enters locked rooms by sliding under the door, flies through the air as a "human kite" and sees the world by climbing into an envelope and mailing himself to his friends around the globe!

Our Flat Cooper is part of the Flat Stanley Project started in 1995 by a third grade schoolteacher in Canada. With a focus on letter-writing and literacy, third-graders are asked to create a Flat Stanley version of themselves and send it off to friends around the world. Friends are asked to treat Flat Stanley as a visiting guest, take pictures of him visiting their part of the world, and add an entry to Flat Stanley's travel journal. We've been hosts to three Flat Stanleys since living in Asia: Flat Kelly, Flat Sylvie and now Flat Cooper - and all three have been very fun travel companions!

Almost everywhere on our travels through the US, Flat Cooper has met with some recognition - one businessman on the street in NYC even stopped and asked how Stanley's travels were going and wanted to be in the picture! But in China the concept of using a cutout figure as an educational tool is an anomaly. People here who have met Flat Cooper are fascinated by the idea, but all agree that it's not something that would ever be used in the Chinese educational system. They don't elaborate, but I can only presume it's because such a concept doesn't fit into the "rote style" of teaching employed in most elementary schools.

Although teaching systems in China may not emphasize exploration or travel outside of the country, I can't help but believe Flat Stanley would be an ideal teaching tool for enhancing and encouraging communication among students domestically. China is so large and has such a diverse landscape, students would benefit tremendously from learning about the different provinces, various traditions and unique and varied lifestyles within their own country.

Who knows, perhaps now that China is opening up to the world, there will be Flat Stanleys coming out of schools in China's major cities traveling to the far corners of the globe! But for the moment we'll continue our tour of Asia with our American Flat Cooper and give him lots of stories to tell when he returns home!

Bon Voyage, Flat Cooper!