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School Days and Preschool Days, Too:
A treasury of anecdotes culled from my work and play as a preschool worker and an elementary school after- school activities supervisor
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 THE LAUGHING CLUB

     A few years ago, I read about the "Bombay Laughing Club", a group of people in India who get together every morning to laugh for twenty minutes—not to tell jokes, mind you, just to laugh, on the theory that laughing itself is good for you.
      Well, last week in the preschool play yard, I was supervising children near the climbing bars outside Room 5, sort of a play yard equivalent to the office water cooler. Children were standing about, climbing on the bars and playing in the sand, when a little boy named Darwin ran out of Room 5, climbed up on the bars, and, holding himself erect, began bellowing out some of the most joyful laughing sounds I've ever heard.      
      "Aaaahhhhh-haaaa-haaaa-haaaaaaaaaa-Aaaaaaahhhhh-haaaaaa-haaaaa-haaaaaa," he went, stretching every syllable way out and stopping only to catch his breath. Head thrown back, face contorted in joy, he laughed on and on.
      I had recently read about a Bay Area Laughing Club that's started in Hollister, and had thought of paying a visit. But, I suddenly realized, hearing Darwin, the Laughing Clubs had come to us!
      Sitting on my teacher's chair, I looked into Darwin's eyes and joined him. Several other children gathered around and after listening for a little while, joined in. Everyone seemed to be having such a good time! I suddenly realized, laughing itself can be funny!      Since then, we laugh together for a few minutes most weekdays, and I don't think the Indian men who dreamed up the Laughing Club idea are wrong about the healthful benefits of the activity.

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