Translated…
That day, I tried to help my students reexamine the meaning of “good friends”.
The young students, at the age of youthfulness, eleven, I’d asked the entire class, “What is a friend?”, in the audience came the passionate replies, “the person who’s kind to you!” “Someone who’d wait for me afterschool so we could walk to afterschool program together”, “Someone who helps me out, and does a lot of things for me!” “Being with him makes me real happy!” “Someone who doesn’t constantly take things from you, someone who tells you when you’d done something wrong, someone who dares corrects you or fights with you, but quickly, the two of you would be okay.”
As the kids shared with me, there was joy from their eyes, and, their lips curled at the corners on their young faces, it’s, as if the friends they spoke of, are right next to them; seeing how they fought to tell in class what’s so good about their best friends, I feel very envious and comforted.
After the kids finished sharing their thoughts, we’d written a list out, for the qualities of a good friend, it’d contained all of our original beliefs of what good friends are: active, passionate, kind, helpful, gentle and caring, patient and truthful. I looked at the chalkboard, and saw their best friends appeared, I’d pressed them, “Do you treat your friends the same way too?” Someone raised his hands high, someone started speaking, and, it’s like they’re all together, answered, in an affirmative way, “Surely we would!”
I was so in awe at how certain my students were, looking at this world we live in right now, there are a lot of competitions, winning and losing, it’d made people forget, and distanced themselves from this sort of simplistic interaction; after maturing, people stopped daring to wish for this sort of relationships, nor do they give themselves to each other completely anymore either.
After that class period was over, I kept thinking over what the kids shared with the class: “in the art class exhibitions, it’d started to rain, my friend rushed forward to save ALL of our pieces on display in the fields, he didn’t just pick up his own work of art and run off.”
“Because we were running in the hallways, the teachers grilled us, and, we feared punishments, so, we’d pointed to one another, and afterwards, we’d apologized to each other, and became best of friends again.” “We would always have so many things to say to each other, and when I told a joke, he’d always laugh!”
Recalling my own growing up, I’d also had several best friends, and, with their patiently accompanying me, sharing my worries and sorrows, I was able to successfully conquer the defeats and the challenges of my own life, it’s just that with the coming of the years, and how we’d grown apart, I’d stopped talking to all of my good friends. Hearing how my students shared their thoughts, it’d brought back so many memories.
This, is how a classroom should be, with the students talking and the teachers learning, and so what IF the students are younger, they may offer you, the instructors, a fresh new perspective, a new look on things too.
