“What’s the most important thing this year?
TO BE HAPPY! We only have one life, so let’s really enjoy it. Ok?” –Mr. Kanamori
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armP8TfS9Is
"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."
I found the link to these videos via Jonathan Carroll’s Twitter. The documentary is 48 minutes long, divided into five parts, five episodes that focus certain students, talk about specific topics like empathy and death and bullying and teamwork. Hope you have the time to watch the entire film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7S8HAfDzk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd7YWx7idfE&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEW65OKRiAk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FGdXEBcdh4&feature=player_embedded
I watched the first one and felt this lump in my throat, but held it back. I watched the second video and the third and the fourth and the last part, and just got more teary-eyed with each episode.
I watched this film last night, after a very long day, after a series of meetings which were more difficult than usual.
And then I see these kids deal with being bullied, being unaccepted, deal with the death of loved ones and –yes, they cry a lot—but they bounced back up and find reason to laugh once again.
I am interested to find out what kind of men and women Mr. Kanamori’s students turn out to be. I wonder what kind of teachers did Mr. Kanamori have, for him to develop such a teaching style, for him to become such a nurturing person.
After watching the film, I tried to remember if I was so strong back when I was 10 years old. I think I was. I don’t remember was if I was so open with how I felt when I was so young.
I think I only learned to be more open with how I felt when I was in high school, when one of our teachers asked us to start keeping a journal for Homeroom Class (or was it English Class?) and I continued keeping a journal even after that school year. I think I became more open and learned to write down how felt about other people because we started writing palanca letters to the ones who attend retreats and Days with Lord.
I don’t remember if I had a teacher like Mr. Kanamori back in grade school. I think I had really great teachers who taught me the importance of studying well. I don’t think I had a teacher who reminded us that we must be happy, that we only have one life to live and we must live it well. I think I found more of those teachers in high school. We learned the most memorable lessons from the teachers and from them, carrying the fondest of memories from those wonder years.
In my write-up for the college year book, I placed a quote, which told the story of a fresh graduate, you climbed up the highest mountain with his diploma and yelled, “Watch out world! I’ve got my BA degree.”
“Sit down!” said the World. “I’ll teach you the rest of the alphabet.”
Class is still in session.
“Let people live in your heart. …they tell their stories and everyone shares their feelings. When people really listen, they live in your heart forever” --Mr. Kanamori
“You come to school to be happy. Everyone must be happy. If one person is unhappy, everybody will be unhappy.”
TO BE HAPPY! We only have one life, so let’s really enjoy it. Ok?” –Mr. Kanamori
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=armP8TfS9Is
"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."
I found the link to these videos via Jonathan Carroll’s Twitter. The documentary is 48 minutes long, divided into five parts, five episodes that focus certain students, talk about specific topics like empathy and death and bullying and teamwork. Hope you have the time to watch the entire film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7S8HAfDzk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd7YWx7idfE&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEW65OKRiAk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FGdXEBcdh4&feature=player_embedded
I watched the first one and felt this lump in my throat, but held it back. I watched the second video and the third and the fourth and the last part, and just got more teary-eyed with each episode.
I watched this film last night, after a very long day, after a series of meetings which were more difficult than usual.
And then I see these kids deal with being bullied, being unaccepted, deal with the death of loved ones and –yes, they cry a lot—but they bounced back up and find reason to laugh once again.
I am interested to find out what kind of men and women Mr. Kanamori’s students turn out to be. I wonder what kind of teachers did Mr. Kanamori have, for him to develop such a teaching style, for him to become such a nurturing person.
After watching the film, I tried to remember if I was so strong back when I was 10 years old. I think I was. I don’t remember was if I was so open with how I felt when I was so young.
I think I only learned to be more open with how I felt when I was in high school, when one of our teachers asked us to start keeping a journal for Homeroom Class (or was it English Class?) and I continued keeping a journal even after that school year. I think I became more open and learned to write down how felt about other people because we started writing palanca letters to the ones who attend retreats and Days with Lord.
I don’t remember if I had a teacher like Mr. Kanamori back in grade school. I think I had really great teachers who taught me the importance of studying well. I don’t think I had a teacher who reminded us that we must be happy, that we only have one life to live and we must live it well. I think I found more of those teachers in high school. We learned the most memorable lessons from the teachers and from them, carrying the fondest of memories from those wonder years.
In my write-up for the college year book, I placed a quote, which told the story of a fresh graduate, you climbed up the highest mountain with his diploma and yelled, “Watch out world! I’ve got my BA degree.”
“Sit down!” said the World. “I’ll teach you the rest of the alphabet.”
Class is still in session.
“Let people live in your heart. …they tell their stories and everyone shares their feelings. When people really listen, they live in your heart forever” --Mr. Kanamori
“You come to school to be happy. Everyone must be happy. If one person is unhappy, everybody will be unhappy.”
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