I expected I’d find readers from New York, Florida,
California….but very early on, I was surprised to receive a book order from a
woman in Wichita, Kansas. Her name was Tracy Callard, and she wrote a very kind
comment on my Facebook page. I didn’t think I would hear much from her after
that.
A few weeks ago, she posted about teaching mah jongg to her
elementary school students. This sounded like a story worth pursuing. It’s not
every day that you find an avid player from the Heartland, after all, and the fact that she was incorporating mah
jongg into her curriculum was fantastic. I asked her for an interview and she
very graciously agreed.
What I found out about Tracy surprised me. Although she
lives in Wichita, her roots are on the East Coast. She learned to play mah
jongg in her early teen years while attending day camp in the Catskills. “It
was a rainy summer, I guess,” she said, “and the counselors, who were from the
City, taught us all how to play on rainy days.”
Tracy took a hiatus from playing for almost twenty years.
Life happened. She went to college on the East Coast, moved to Ohio to teach at
a private school, and later earned a law degree. She relocated to Kansas and practiced
law, but found the lifestyle to be unsatisfying, to say the least: “the stress
never ends.” After she married a Wichita high school history teacher, she
decided to return to teaching, as well. Her fluency in Spanish helped her land
a position at Wichita’s dual-language immersion, K-8 magnet school. She
eventually found herself working with the Gifted and Talented third- through
fifth-grade classes, and earned her M.Ed. from Wichita State.
She’s not sure what brought her back to mah jongg after so
many years away, but around the time her second son was born, Tracy became
interested again. “Maybe I was being oppositional/defiant to all the bridge
players around here,” she joked. Although she isn’t Jewish, she figured that
the best place to find other players would be through the local Reform
synagogue in Wichita. She asked them whether they knew of a regular mah jongg
group—but no one had heard of the game!
Fortunately, Tracy’s been able to connect with a devoted
mahj group in the Catskills, and plays for three months every summer when she
comes back East. It seems that her professional calling is complemented by that
Catskills lifestyle. It’s the perfect combination of doing what she loves,
having time for her family, and keeping her summers free!
The real story, though, is what Tracy does during the school year. Several years ago, she
found that her gifted students were covering the curriculum quickly, and she
wanted to find an activity that would challenge and stimulate them. She decided
to teach them mah jongg. Because the game involves strategy, finding patterns, analyzing
opportunities and making choices based on probability, it is a natural for
mathematically-inclined people. In fact, this year’s class is going to be
featured on a district cable television show about math. “The kids know it’s a
complicated game,” she said, “but they love it.”
At first, she created special cards just for her students:
the goals were hands like “any three kongs and two flowers,” or “any four pungs
and two dragons,” but after a while she realized that they were up for a
greater challenge. She began letting them play with old NMJL cards. The game
has been very popular among both boys and girls, none of whose parents had ever
played. The kids just think it’s a fun game, and they get very enthusiastic and
competitive about it. “Mah jongg Fridays” are a treat, after the completion of
a hard week of regular studies. She says the average session is an hour and a
half or less.
Because there has not been a big mah jongg community in
Wichita, Tracy had trouble finding enough equipment for her elementary
students. Fortunately, she was able to buy several new, slightly damaged sets
at a discount, and has received old cards, donated from some ladies on Long
Island. She likes having enough for each student to use, and sometimes the kids
actually request a particular card that they prefer, e.g., “Let’s play 2011
again today!”
Tracy also teaches a beginner class for adults through the
local Parks & Recreation program. She has both men and women as students,
including married couples. She finds that engineers and other
mathematically-inclined players tend to catch on to the game fairly quickly,
and some are especially adept at playing defense, figuring out what their
opponents are trying to play. Unfortunately, not everyone is as well-suited.
Some of her older students have trouble understanding a whole new game. “Often,
the kids catch on faster than the adults. They don’t question the rules that I
give them.”
Mah jongg has a totally different meaning in Wichita. The
kids, as well as the adults who take Tracy’s course through Parks &
Recreation, have no pre-conceived notions about the game. There’s no
reminiscences of “Aunt Esther sitting poolside,” or the memory of ladies in the
living room, playing for hours. To them, it’s just a fun and interesting game.
On the other hand, Tracy says, “the kids bicker about incorrect exposures just
like a bunch of old ladies in Boynton Beach!”
One year, the game was so popular that some students said
they were going to ask Santa for mah jongg tiles. Tracy clued in the parents
about how to order them, to make sure the sets were “American,” with jokers,
numbers on the crak tiles, etc. Three kids returned from vacation that year and
announced that Santa had brought them identical sets!
The young players have absorbed the game and are deeply
involved when they play. She said, “It’s like having a little Concord Hotel in
the middle of Wichita!” Some of the kids have started teaching their parents
how to play, both in English and in Spanish. One fourth-grade student was so
enthusiastic that he chose to write about mah jongg for a local “persuasive
essay” competition. His topic was “Why You Should Play Mah Jongg,” and as part
of his argument he listed social benefits, as well as neurological ones—specifically,
that it helps reduce the risk of dementia. The essay was awarded a prize.
Tracy’s a prize-winner, herself, having been named Kansas’ “State
Teacher of the Year” in 2002. That same year, she was a finalist for the
“National Teacher of the Year.” She has many good teaching years ahead, and I
wouldn’t be surprised if she is nominated again. I’m so impressed that she
thought to open up the game to young people who never would have been exposed
to it, otherwise, and that she has been resourceful enough to acquire
equipment.
If you would like to support Tracy’s kids, whether by sending
some of your old cards and tile sets, or just sending words of encouragement,
contact me at bubbefischer@gmail.com and I’ll pass the word along. I’m sure
they’ll love hearing from you, just as I do!
Talk to you soon!
Bubbe Fischer
Are there any new classes being taught at this time of in the near future. Spring time?
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