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Optimism is a trait often associated with the "wise fool" character. For this activity, find a "wise fool" story that features optimism, and retell that story in your own words so that you make the optimistic message come through loud and clear.

Include the hashtag #Optimism in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

NC-licensed image from WannaPik Studio.

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The limerick verse form is inherently funny, which makes it a good one for wise-fool stories. For this activity, either find an existing limerick that you think illustrates foolish wisdom, or write your own limerick that tells a wise-fool story. This WikiHow webpage explains how to write a limerick, and this rhyming dictionary is also useful for finding words that rhyme. The graphic above is from What Is a Limerick, and it gives the basic limerick rhythm:

di DUM di di DUM di di DUM (twice)

di DUM di di DUM (twice)

di DUM di di DUM di di DUM

Include the hashtag #Limerick in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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screenshot of Proverbs Bookshelf at the Internet Archive

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There's often a strong connection between traditional folktales and traditional proverbs. Sometimes proverbs inspire folktales, and vice versa. This is especially true for "wise fool" stories that were told to teach wisdom. There are also "wise fool" stories based on a fool taking a proverb literally, and not understanding what the proverb means.

For this activity, find a "wise fool" story that involves a proverb and retell it in your own words, or create your own "wise fool" story inspired by a proverb. Then share your story at the Gallery, and tell us about your storytelling process too.

To learn more about proverbs from around the world, you can visit our Proverbs Bookshelf at the Internet Archive, or search the Internet Archive yourself for a cultural tradition that interests you (for example: African proverbs).

Include the hashtag #Proverb in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Find a wise-fool story that you really love and retell the story in your own words. You can find hundreds of stories to browse at the Resources Padlet. Share your story at the Gallery, and add some comments to let people just know what you loved about the story, and how you tried to emphasize that dimension of the story when telling your own version.

Include the hashtag #LoveIt in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Tell or retell a wise-fool joke in a comic strip format. Draw it on paper or use a digital tool. If you prefer to work digitally, Make Beliefs Comix is an easy-to-use tool that doesn’t require registration. And this Ditch Your Textbook blog entry gives lots of practical advice for creating simple comic strips along with Google Drawing templates. Then share your comic strip at the Gallery!

Include the hashtag #ComicStrip in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Find a wise-fool story that you think is really funny. Retell the story and/or link to the story online in a post at the Gallery. Then, add your comments about just what makes the story funny.

Include the hashtag #FunnyStory in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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For this activity, you will write a story that involves riddling!

Riddles are very much part of the "wise fool" tradition. Often someone who seems foolish is the only one wise enough to solve a riddle. Alternatively, the "fool" might be the one asking the riddle, much as Zen masters challenge their students with seemingly foolish or impossible koans. You can find lots of riddle books at the Internet Archive, and also books of Zen koans.

Or maybe you will want to create your own riddles! Take a look at this online resource: How to Make a Riddle, or this fun book: Fiddle with a Riddle.

Share your creation at the Gallery, along with your thoughts about the wisdom of riddles.

Include the hashtag #RiddleStory or #KoanStory in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Please add your thoughts to this collaborative document:

Just What Is Foolish Wisdom Anyway?

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This Daily Create is the perfect way to express advice from wise fools using this fun generator of safety signs.

Include the hashtag #SafetySigns in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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WARNING: Run behind a car and get exhausted. / Run in front and get tired.

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For this activity, you will meet a wise fool and then share what you learn at the Gallery. Maybe you will find a good story that you want to retell in your own words! :-)

There are so many wise fools out there: some from folklore, and some from real life. Of course, if there is another wise fool you know about and want to share, that's even better!

Here's a list of the wise fools you can find at the Resources Padlet:

Nasruddin - Goha - Giufà - Joha - Hershel - Motke - Fools of Chelm - Juan Bobo - Pedro Urdemales - Aesop - Till Eulenspiegel - Birbal - Tenali Rama - Gopal Bhar - Uncle Tompa - Ryokan - Amelia Bedelia -

And here are some links to Wikipedia article about other folkloric and also historical fools:

Wise Men of Gotham - Molboes - Moonrakers - Ship of Fools - Guru Paramartha - Tarot Fool - Don Quixote - Socrates - Forrest Gump - Will Sommers - Jane Foole - Nichola - Archy Armstrong - Tom Durie - Jeffrey Hudson - Stańczyk - Emperor Norton - Saint Simeon - Saint Procopius - Saint Basil - Laughing Buddha - Drukpa Kunley - Chogyam Trungpa -

Include the hashtag #MeetAFool in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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The Internet Archive is FULL of books that you can check out and browse. Even if you just have 15 minutes of so, you can learn a lot about a book by poking around.

So, for this activity, pick a book to browse at the Internet Archive! You can see some lists of "wise-fool" resources that Laura has put on her Internet Archive lists.

When you're done, write up your thoughts, and share them at the Gallery!

I've also provided a list of a few possible books below... but there are hundreds of great books to browse at the Archive. :-)

Primary sources:

Noodlehead Stories - Garland for the Fool - The Wise Fool - Goha - Folktales of Joha - The World of Nasrudin - The Wise Men of Helm - Birbal Tales - The Little Zen Companion - Zen Buddhism: Stories

Secondary sources:

Crazy Wisdom - Fools Are Everywhere - The King's Fool - Holy Madness - Foolish Wisdom - The Sufis - Attaining Enlightenment -

Include the hashtag #BookBrowsing in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Please help us to build the Wise Fools Wise Fools Resources Padlet with good online resources! That might be a webpage, or a whole website, or maybe a video. Write up a Padlet post for the Gallery sharing what you found, and then Laura will add that to the Resources for everyone to enjoy.

Include the hashtag #OnlineResource in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Because Nasruddin occasionally makes his living as a teacher (he is Mullah Nasruddin after all!), you can find stories about his teaching methods. Here are a few stories to get you started: Nasruddin’s Sermon, Nasruddin’s Grammar, Nasruddin's Flying Donkey, Tamerlane and Nasruddin’s Donkey, Nasruddin and the Ocean, Nasruddin and the Butterfly, and Different People, Different Paths.

For this activity, think about what Nasruddin's foolish wisdom tells us about school and schooling. Can you learn something from Nasruddin the teacher that could apply to your own teaching and/or learning? Maybe you will even be inspired to write your own Nasruddin teaching-and-learning story!

Include the hashtag #Pedagogy in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Creative Commons donkey image search results

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Tell a wise-fool story where the punchline is conveyed NOT in words but in a picture. Possibilities include drawing the picture yourself, finding a picture, or using artificial intelligence to generate an image. When sharing your story, add alt-text to your picture.

And remember, you can find hundreds of wise-fool stories online at the Internet Archive and elsewhere; check out the Resources Padlet for story ideas.

Include the hashtag #PicturePunchline in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Readers Theater is a special style of theater that is 100% focused on the characters and their voices, with a narrator who describes the setting, action, etc., as needed. You can find out more about Readers Theater in this article that Laura and Heather wrote: Open the Language Classroom Curtains to Readers Theater. The article is embedded in this post; just click on the thumbnail to open and read it.

Readers Theater can be as short as a few hundred words, or as long as several thousand: it's up to you! Try writing a readers theater script based on a wise fool story... and maybe you'll want to contribute that to the Readers Theater track here at MYFest24 also!

Include the hashtag #ReadersTheater in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Step 1: Use Laura Gibbs’ Nasruddin randomizer to find a 100-word Nasruddin story you like.

Step 2: Paste Laura’s story into this blackout poetry maker.

Step 3: Create something new using the blackout poetry maker. This might be a poem, or an even shorter story.

Step 4 (optional): Add new words and/or pictures to your blackout poetry.

Include the hashtag #BlackoutPoetry in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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screenshot of ChatGPT showing conversation with Nasruddin

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Generative AI can take on any role. See where your conversation goes when you ask AI to be a wise fool. What pearls of foolish wisdom does the AI generate? Here’s one prompt you can adapt by replacing [at/in/on a location] and [topic] with your own ideas:

Imagine you are a wise fool, a paradoxical figure who appears foolish or mad on the surface, but is actually a bearer of wisdom and insight. You and I are talking [at/in/on a location] about [topic]. Restrict yourself to maximum three sentences per turn.

Include the hashtag #AIConvo in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Here is how to create a Wikipedia Trail that you can share at the Gallery:

1. Document. Create a document to keep track of your progress.

2. Starting point. Pick a Wikipedia article to start with: that might be an article about a specific wise fool, or a general article related to foolishness and wisdom, jokes and riddles, etc. Paste the link into your document, and write a few words about what you learned reading this article. You might also include an image.

3. Destination 1. Follow the link from that article to ANOTHER article. Paste the link into your document, and write a few words about what you learned from this article. Then follow another link and another and another, so you have notes on FIVE Wikipedia articles.

4. Download your document and upload it to the Wise Fools Gallery to share with others. Title your document From (your starting point) to (your end point).

Include the hashtag #WikipediaTrail in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Tesla 100-dinar note by Anders Sandberg at Flickr

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The 100-word story format can work really nicely for simple little stories like this one, especially when the story features dialogue. Here are some tips on editing down to 100 words. Laura has written an embarrassingly large number of 100-word stories (thousands of them... that's how easy they are to write!) which you can find here: 100Words.LauraGibbs.net.

Include the hashtag #100WordStory in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Think of a joke you like, or read through a jokebook, and see if the joke possibly hides some kind of "foolish wisdom" as well as being funny. (If you find the source online or in a book, credit your source in the notes.)

Include the hashtag #OldJoke in your contribution, and you can search the Gallery for examples using the hashtag.

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Welcome to the Activities Padlet for the "Wisdom of Fools" at MYFest24. You will find suggested reading and writing activities here, along with ideas for exploration, conversation, and other kinds of acts of creation. You can browse as slideshow, and the posts will appear in random order each time the page loads.

You can subscribe to the story of the day (and related activities) here: Email Sign-Up.

If you have ideas for activities to add, please comment on this post, or send an email to laurakgibbs@gmail.com. The more ideas, the better!

Here is a list of the activities you will find here:

#100WordStory: Tell a 100-word story.

#AIConvo: AI: Wise Fool.

#BlackoutPoetry: Blackout Poetry.

#BookBrowsing: Browse a Book.

#ComicStrip: Create a Comic Strip.

#FunnyStory: What's So Funny?

#KoanStory: Riddles and Koans.

#Limerick. Wise-Fool Limerick.

#LoveIt: I Love This Story.

#MeetAFool: Meet a Fool.

#OldJoke: New version of old joke.

#OnlineResource: Finding Online Resources.

#Optimism: The Wise Fool's Optimism.

#Pedagogy: Foolish Wisdom Pedagogy.

#PicturePunchline: Punchline as Picture.

#Proverb: Proverbial Wisdom.

#ReadersTheater: Readers Theater.

#RiddleStory: Riddles and Koans.

#SafetySigns: Wise/Foolish Safety Signs.

#WikipediaTrail: Wikipedia Trail.

Or you might want to contribute to this collaborative document: What Is Foolish Wisdom?