I attended my first Fighting Words session of the new school year today. I always enjoy my mornings there but this bunch of eight and nine year old lads from St Joesph's CBS ( Joeys) in Fairview were classic. I laughed until I cried. And fair play to Sara Bennett facilitator extraordinaire, who controlled the energy in the room and pulled a hilarious story out of the kids called 'Where is the Evil Anymore' about Tiguar (halfTiger/half Jaguar) and his friend Stop Talking a parrot who wouldn't stop talking . Here's a link to it if you want to read more. http://www.fightingwords.ie/news/todays-story.php .
One of the rules in Fighting Words is that we try not to use violence in the stories and Sarah explained this to the children. One child asked 'what's violence?'. Sarah explained the word in simpler terms and I thought about the little incident. I wonder will we ever see a world where violence is an archaic word. A word that 98% of the population wouldn't understand because there is none. A word that only archaeologists historians etcetera understand? I'd love to be around in that world. A world full of balanced happy people contributing and living in their society on good terms with all about them. A world where people like the ones in my home abound. People who are loved, people who love, who sing and read and talk and above all listen to each other.
Lack of communication is the main reason for all frustration, frustration that tips into anger and cause rows. If we listen - really listen- to what our children are saying, our older people our disenfranchised through lack of education or the inability to nurture never having known nurturing. Every society, every country, every world and be judged on how it treats those on the fringes of that society. This is the message of every great teacher since time began, the message of Plato, Sophocles, Jesus Christ, the prophet Mohammed, Buddha, Martin Luther King. Bring me your old, your sick and your lonely. Nurture your children. Love one another.
Will we ever get there lads?
C'mon - sure we'll give it a go.
One of the rules in Fighting Words is that we try not to use violence in the stories and Sarah explained this to the children. One child asked 'what's violence?'. Sarah explained the word in simpler terms and I thought about the little incident. I wonder will we ever see a world where violence is an archaic word. A word that 98% of the population wouldn't understand because there is none. A word that only archaeologists historians etcetera understand? I'd love to be around in that world. A world full of balanced happy people contributing and living in their society on good terms with all about them. A world where people like the ones in my home abound. People who are loved, people who love, who sing and read and talk and above all listen to each other.
Lack of communication is the main reason for all frustration, frustration that tips into anger and cause rows. If we listen - really listen- to what our children are saying, our older people our disenfranchised through lack of education or the inability to nurture never having known nurturing. Every society, every country, every world and be judged on how it treats those on the fringes of that society. This is the message of every great teacher since time began, the message of Plato, Sophocles, Jesus Christ, the prophet Mohammed, Buddha, Martin Luther King. Bring me your old, your sick and your lonely. Nurture your children. Love one another.
Will we ever get there lads?
C'mon - sure we'll give it a go.
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