Invatatorul

Un invatator adevarat trebuie sa fie a)invatat si b)sa stie cum sa ii invete pe ceilalti ce vrea el sa ii invete, insa in ritmul si intelegerea in care pot ei invata. Asta ca sa sune asa, ca la scoala 🙂

Un invatator adevarat nu este neaparat cel ce termina niste cursuri pedagogice sau o institutie de profil. Invatator nu este cel care sta in spatele unei catedre si simte zi de zi ca este dreptul lui sa fie acolo si obligatia celor pe care ii priveste, mititeii aceia din banci, sa faca doar ce spune el, cand spune el, toti in cor.

Un invatator adevarat se gaseste rar zilele acestea. Pentru ca acel om minunat trebuie sa se cunoasca pe sine si sa continue sa invete zi de zi despre el si despre viata. Sa isi ia timp si ragaz sa asculte o intrebare pana la capat si apoi sa ofere raspunsul cautat de cel ce intreaba, nu doar pe cel pregatit de el, oferit de manuale sau programa.

Un invatator adevarat este raspunzator cu consolidarea unor viitoare convingeri si caractere puternice. El cauta sa înflorească fiecare boboc din buchetul clasei lui, nu doar sa cioparteasca frunzulite si mugurasi ce nu au crescut cum trebuie, sunt gresiti.

Daca ar fi sa pot alege un talent, as vrea sa fiu Domnul Trandafir. Sau cel putin asa cum l-am deslusit eu din scrisul lui Sadoveanu. Ca dupa mine sa ramana o vorba:” In locul acela odata a trait un om”. Si asta sa fie suficient pentru fiecare ce o citeste sa inteleaga cine am fost.

Din pacate invatatori adevărați nu mai sunt atat de multi acum. Nici zilele noastre nu mai sunt ce-au fost candva si ar fi si greu sa mai fie. Pentru ca ne grabim. Sa deprindem obiceiuri care sa ne departeze de noi si de ceilalti. Asa ca daca ati avut norocul sa intalniti un dascal minunat, bucurati-va si multumiti-i ca exista.

Pentru final cativa dascali model intalniti in povestile citite pana acum. Domnului Falker, profesorul din clasa a cincea al Patriciei Polacco, i-as da o medalie de mare erou al omenirii si i-as obliga pe toti cei care iau astfel de decizii sa introduca aceasta carte ca lectură obligatorie in scoli. Si in cele generale, dar si in cele ce ii pregatesc pe viitorii dascali. Pentru ca da, este de neimaginat inca, desi se intampla frecvent, cum poate trece un copil atatia ani prin scoala fara ca nimeni sa nu inteleaga ca are un handicap ce poate fi recuperat. Cu multa munca si mult ajutor, dar poate fi recuperat. Ca el nu vede literele ca noi toti si trebuie ajutat si incurajat sa o faca. Nu rusinat sistematic pentru neputinta lui fiziologică.
Pe Miss Twinkle, profesoara de muzica a Crizantemei, as incununa-o zana tuturor copilasilor invatacei. Cat de minunata sa fii sa reusesti cu atata blandete sa starpesti rautati si sa cladesti in loc frumoase prietenii!
Iar Miss Nelson musai sa primească premiul pentru cel mai inovator dascal, pentru ca nicio alta fiinta nu ar fi reusit atatea izbande cu atatia copilasi nazdravani.

Ziua Recunostintei

De ceva timp, de cand fiica noastra a inceput sa inteleaga rostul lucrurilor si al obiceiurilor noastre zilnice, avem un mic ritual. Seara, inainte de culcare, ne povestim ziua, cu ce a fost bun si nu prea in ea. Multumim pentru ce avem si ne exprimam supararea pentru ce nu ne place.

Vara asta, pe fondul unor traumatisme anterioare, m-am trezit brusc cu niste dureri acute la umarul drept. In scurt timp au devenit permanente si mobilitatea mea s-a redus considerabil. Cu mult efort si terapie, am reusit sa imi reiau aproape total functionalitatea mainii. Insa a fost un proces tare dureros si dificil. Uneori imi petreceam minute in sir pentru a face miscari ce inainte durau cateva secunde. Faptul ca nu intelegeam cum ajunsesem aici nu ajuta nici el deloc. Insa in fiecare clipa ma bucuram ca nu sunt mai rau si ca pot functiona independent de ajutorul altora. Acum sunt bine, continui terapia si recuparea, insa este o binecuvantare sa le fac fara durere. Si de fiecare data cand mi se pare ceva greu sau nedrept, imi aduc aminte ca sunt bine. Ca nu mai am dureri. Multumesc pentru ce am si incerc sa nu fiu nemultumita pentru ce lipseste. Ce lipseste probabil nu ne trebuie acum.

Cand i-am spus fiicei mele ca se apropie Ziua Recunostintei si am intrebat-o pentru ce este recunoscatoare, nu stia ce inseamna recunoscator, asa ca am apelat la explicatia din engleza: am intrebat cui sau pentru ce anume din viata ei ar dori sa multumeasca.

– Cui sa multumesc? Tie sau lui tati?

– Sau altcuiva. Poate lui Dumnezeu sau …

– Lui Dumnezeu, da. Desi el a facut si supararea si mie nu imi place deloc cand suntem suparate una pe alta.

– Uite, eu sunt recunoscatoare ca va am pe voi, pe tine si pe tati. Si ca suntem sanatosi. Ca nu ma mai doare umarul. Ca avem tot ce ne trebuie.

– Mie mi-ar mai trebui niste seturi Lego si niste fulare si caciulite pentru animalutele mele de plus…

Sincerely, Emerson

A girl, her letter and the helpers all around us

By Emerson Weber, Illustrated by Jaclyn Sinquett

Harper Collins Publishers, 2020

My daughter loves books! And she loves sharing them and their stories with her friends. Today she went to the kindergarten with a really special book, so her teacher will read it to all of her collegues. And so, I thought I could share this book with you today.

“Sincerely, Emerson” is a book about a girl, her letter and the people who have been helping us in the last pandemic year.

It became an Editors’ pick for Best books ages 6-8 on Amazon. This is the kind of message I felt the need to deliver to all those people helping me and my family, from the moment the lockdown came upon us last spring. The couriers, the trash collectors, the people working in the supermarkets, the ones in the front line. All of them were and still are my heroes. They all felt the same fears and worries as I felt: the fear they will get infected, sick, maybe die. That their loved ones will get sick or die. That you have no idea where or how the invisible little “enemy” will hit. Who says that the pandemy didn’t affected him at all, in my opinion, has a problem! We were all affected by it and we still are. And my guess is that the big side effects are yet to come.

But these guys, these superheroes, they had to do their jobs, every single day, as best as they could. It wasn’t an option for them to stay at home safe, feeling scared or worried. Or to work from home. They had to go there and do what was expected of them. Because they had children to feed and bills to pay. To have a roof over their head at night. So, in my mind they are the real heros of this pandemic year. And we all should thank them. Not pressure them to arrive sooner or demand explanations for little details going wrong.

So, dear all, a big Thank you from me and my family!

And now back to our book. Emerson Weber is a 11 years old girl who lives in South Dakota. She loves writting letters and decorate them and the envelopes she puts them on. Because she thinks that writting and receiving letters is more personal than sending text or online messages. The joy and emotion you feel when you touch the letter that someone wrote especially for you is so much more than reading a text on a screen.

Emerson became famous last year, after sending a Thank you letter to her postman, Doug. She was writing letters to her friends as a way to remain connected during the quarantine. And one day she saw Doug, her postman, picking up her letters and she realised that he was the one making that connection possible. So she wrote him a Thank you letter. Doug shared the letter with his superviser Sarah, who put it in a newsletter to all the postal workers in the U.S. Next week, Emerson received two big boxes of letters from postal workers all over America. They were happy that someone had “seen” them; validated their work and their importance in the community. And so, Emerson story became viral. She received more than 1000 letters and responded to them. She appeared in television shows and news all over the world! She even received a letter from her idol, Taylor Swift! And a small gift she sent to her.

And so, the real story of the girl who loved to write letters became a book. That has beautiful, beautiful illustrations and a powerful message: saying Thank you doesn’t cost a thing and only brings joy and happiness.

And we all should say Thank you more often, especially to those helping us.

I imagine that the story transformed in a children book will become a blockbuster movie sometime soon. If not, we will always have the book to remember us the most important words: thank you!

Farewell 2020!

I have 2020 reasons to talk about the year it’s about to end. I will not do it, of course, because I will not be able to end all of them by the time 2021 settles in.

2020 was a year of many encouters. With big scary things, real or just made up by our fears; with joys and happiness; with tears and worries. A beautiful large plate of emotions. Felted for ourselves or the people we love the most in this life.

It was a year like no other, at least for me. A year I learned that all I have can be wiped out in a second, without a warning or time to prepair. In which I learned that my liberties can all be taken away by a higher force, that I can’t fight without having to pay a big price.

Or that I cannot take my daughter for a walk in the park anymore. Nor to see her friends or relatives. A year I had to stay away from all the people I knew. To keep my distance. Keeping the distance is the first step in isolating our hearts and the good emotions. And keeping them all closed and ready in case something bad happens. Survival mode.

But I will not do any of these in 2021! My heart has to be open to the people I love, always. The fear has to go away now, in the last hours of 2020. All I need to keep is my courrage, to be able to face all that 2021 will bring along.

I hope it will bring a new chapter to be written and read. In which we would all have the power to choose the path or our actions.

I hope your new year will be a better one. And, as this year is prepairing to leave us, I want to thank you all! All of you that had stopped for a brief moment in time to visit littlehumans.blog

And I also wish that 2021 will repair all that this terrific year had broken. And that the end of 2021 will find you in a better place.

Happy new year everyone!

Pumpkins and turkeys and giving thanks

When your daughter likes pumpkins and Hallowen and Thanksgiving dinners (even if you don’t live in the US) what can you do?

You buy her books about it and you read them together. And you carve pumpkins and make Hallowen costumes and go trick or treat with her.

And then she will make the Thanksgiving menu and ask you to include some turkey in it and some gravy, of course. And corn and potatoes. But not sweet potatoes, she doesn’t like sweet potatoes. And a pumpkin pie she will help making. And some edamame, she loves edamame. What if they are not a Thanksgiving tradition? Since she is making the menu, she can put anything she wants on it.

And then she will repeat the menu daily, in case you have a bad memory. I don’t have.

And then we will have a small Thanksgiving dinner, just the three of us, because we will be on a lockdown by then. But hey, it was a fun autumn, full of stories about pumpkins and turkeys and everything!

Pumkins and Thanksgiving stories