Children and their books

Rosa and Angela have started this month with a look at children, books and lessons; before I read their articles, I decided I would also focus on what adults can learn from children's books...not what children can learn but what adults can learn.

One of my favorites that I discovered as an adult is The Velveteen Rabbit. I cited it in one of my articles during our "unlearning series." My favorite portion of the book was quoted in that article and I return to it here:

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

What a lesson for us adults! Accepting ourselves and others as Designer Originals...embracing others not as you would like them to be but as they really are, encouraging all they are to come forth - these are profound challenges! And, the process can hurt...but when you are real you don't mind being hurt.

On a lighter side, yet just as lesson-filled, is my favorite book as a child, which I checked out of the library many times, Stop That Ball! by Mike McClintock. First published in 1959, it is the adventurous tale of a little boy who hits his big red ball out of his yard, and all that happens to him as he has tries to catch up to it. Who would think it would be so difficult retrieving something lost! Falling down a manhole, riding on a dumptruck, being blown up along with a hill top, landing in a band member's tuba only to have it blown back into the lad's own back yard teaches a powerful lesson. Let nothing detour you from your passionate pursuits! This, too is a lesson for us adults who often give up too early and trade in the old for the new. After all, the boy could have gotten another ball...For me, the greatest lessons learned are often taught by the master teachers, children and their books.

Questions:

1. What books do you remember reading as a child?
2. What lessons did they teach to children and what do they now teach to you?

Dean Boyer is a contributing author for the Teaching with Aloha Blog, and has been an educator for nearly 30 years in the United States and Taiwan. He has been a guest speaker at the East Asia Regional Conference for Overseas Schools, the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children and the Association of Christian Schools International. Currently he serves as Superintendent at a Christian school near Seattle, Washington. He has been happily married 32 years and enjoys being “dad” to his two sons,their wives and “grandpa” to his two grandchildren.

Comments

[Angela Maiers]

Dean, I love this post! You are right on-we can learn so much from the messages in children's books. I often get raised eyebrows from students (and teachers) when I bring a children's picture book into class with older students until they listen to the lesson and conversation it ignites. The book that I have been lovin' lately is called ISH by Peter H. Reynolds . It is a delightful tale with a delightful message: to live our lives a bit imperfect-"ishingly"! You'll have to check it out!

[Steve Sherlock]

Dean, one small regret about my daughters growing up into the young ladies that they have become, is that I don't have ready access to the books of the tweens. Yes, I do have access. I can go into a store or shop online with the best of them. But to read and discuss the same book amongst the family was a treasured time during their school days.

Oh, we still have good discussions and frequently about books these days now that they are in college. But they are not kids books!

[dave]

This is precious Dean! I have no memory of either my childhood or my daughters' childhood reading. But I so appreciate that connection to curiosity and imagination that should be continuously nurtured in your children for as long as is humanly possible.

[Karen Wallace]

Dean, I love the Velveteen Rabbit! I have been giving it as a gift to all my friends who have had babies in recent years.

You are so right about there being so much learning in childrens books for us as adults. I still like to read 'with' (not 'to' anymore) my youngest child - he's 9 - to share the learning and the experience. I treasure those childhood books so much - they will always take pride of place on our bookshelf.