Bits and bobs

"Children Full of Life" is a series of short profoundly moving documentaries about a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokio where their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori, encourages students to write their true inner feelings in a letter and read it aloud in front of the class. Each day, three children read letters to their classmates talking honestly about their feelings and sharing deep, ordinarily inaccessible emotions with the rest of the students. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates and gives them the opportunity to discover the value of sharing powerful emotions.
For a whole school year, the camera follows these 10-year-old's students showing how they grow and develop by learning empathy and compassion. They learn about themselves and their friends. Learn to cheer up their mates and to themselves. Learn to be courageous and take responsabilities.
Classroom discussions include difficult issues such as the death of a parent or being the victim of bullying. There are great emotive moments in this class. Mr. Kanamori's message in Class One is that their primary goal of the year is to be happy. We only have one life so we have to enjoy it. "We come to school to be happy, so let's all be happy together". This is the vow made by Grade Four students and their teacher Kanamori. The class searches together for ways to understand and cope with troubled relationships, unhappiness and loss of loved ones. Through their daily experiences, we see how they develop together the spirit of co-operation and compassion creating strong bonds between them.
An amazing moment is when a child stands up desperately for a friend. I could never imagine a child taking this kind of risk on behalf on another child. I also find it interesting that all the children took collective responsability for one child's actions.
I have to admit, I teared up a few times watching it.

- To my friend a.c.g.a. He was also such a teacher -
(You can see a Spanish subtitled version in Youtube "Pensando en los demás" from the Catalonian tv. The images are not of a good quality but it deserves to be seen.)