I discovered this powerful documentary from fellow facilitator Lynn Walsh on Twitter. Watching these clips certainly inspired me to do better when I run our Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz workshops for primary schools.
From my observations in running student workshops in over 100 primary and secondary schools here in Melbourne Australia, is that excellent teachers have two things in common.
- They like kids
- They allow kids to share in the decision making
I hope you enjoy viewing these clips and think about the education of our children of not what is but what can be.
Here is a description of the documentary from CBC Newsworld.
“In the award-winning documentary Children Full of Life, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori. He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates.”
Wow.. I’ve only seen the first video and I’m rather inspired already.
Wish they would have done these things when I was at school. In my day, the cane did the talking.
Lemme watch the others.
Yes, it’s a terrific video. When I was at school the strap did the talking and I remember getting ‘the cuts’ often. The punishment did not ‘scar or damage me’ but it did make me appreciate the individual acts of kindness and compassion shown by some teachers.
I reckon these videos should be compulsory viewing for all new teachers and for experienced teachers. Probably compulsory for anybody who was ever a ‘kid’.