A ‘Reading for Wellbeing’ recommended read!
The laughter of Stafford Girls’ High by Carol Ann Duffy (from Feminine Gospels by Carol Ann Duffy)
The legend goes that one of the Stafford High girls started laughing out loud. No one knows why, it was something funny writing on “a note, torn from the back of the King James Bible”. This set off her whole class, then the neighbouring classes. Soon the whole school was laughing out loud, despite the threat of severe consequences from the head teacher. Eventually all the teachers are laughing too.
This poem reminded me of those times of uncontrollable laughter which are so contagious. But I also found it empowering. The girls and, eventually, the teachers stop following the rules, and seem to find freedom through laughter.
Maybe laughing allows us to take life less seriously and help us to focus our energy on the things that make us happy rather than on those that constrain us and hold us back.
One reply on “The laughter of Stafford Girls’ High”
This poem is illuminating, funny and makes me very uneasy, especially the teacher who walks into the sea. Can I ask Carol Ann if it has any basis in truth (she went to Stafford Girls’High) and whether an actual incident of hilarity in the classroom set it off?