Five Days of Character .... they do make a diff.

I currently teach at a 5-day character camp in beautiful Yunlin County, Taiwan. Every week has its memorable moments. A recent moment occurred towards the end of the week of that particular camp, and it had been a loooong beginning, middle - and the end still seemed forever in the future; so this was an encouraging 60 seconds.


Every week, a teacher shows the class the Pixar short "For the Birds"; it's a great clip that provides fantastic discussion material regarding respecting others. Portrayed in the short by a dozen or so small birds, they first reject and make fun of a larger, strange bird, bullying him, the short finishing with the small birds getting their just recompense, and that from their own actions. We talk about it with the students, asking them to identify differences in the two kinds of birds; throughout the whole ordeal, the big bird maintains a friendly, inviting countenance, and positive attitude and a helpful spirit. The last question put to the children is this: "Which you do you want to be: a small bird, or a big bird?" Only once have I ever heard a child respond "Small bird!" and he was a mischievous little dude. On the whole, it's unanimous: the big bird is the role model the children choose. So, the recent 'moment' was in the making because of these circumstances: one student was laughing at another, not in a 'let's have fun together' way; the student being laughed at had some minor mental hindrances, but still understood what was going on - was on his way over to the other table to do some communication with his fists, but I steeped. After getting him back to his desk, I went over to the student who had laughed - he'd been behaving thus most of the week, but we'd seen improvement. The conversation went like this:

"Why are you laughing at him?"

"Because he's fun to laugh at."

"Do you remember learning about the small birds and the big bird yesterday?"

He nods.

"So is laughing at him being a small bird or a big bird?"

Eyes drop. "Small bird." Looking up at me, quickly adding, "I want to be a big bird."

"Yes! I knew you were smart! You definitely can!"

I guess I should have had him apologize to the other student; I didn't, but I was encouraged - he got the point, and now knew what it looked like in his own life. Hopefully it'll not soon be forgotten, but evolves in his life.

'Til Next Type~