The Giving Tree

 The most exciting and fulfilling part of my week is when I get to teach in the Creative and Talented Programme. We started this programme for very bright children who struggle to remain in the classroom fulltime because their attention wanders, they need more stimulation, and they need to be supported emotionally in a world they don’t gel with easily. 
 

I teach twelve- and thirteen-year-old children and currently we are dealing with social and emotional issues related to teams, being alone, loneliness and leadership.  This week’s topic was ‘are we always responsible for our actions’ and ‘what do we do when we regret our actions later ‘.

To introduce the topic, I used The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, a line drawn picture book with a powerful message. We often introduce our topics through Philosophy with Children, an education method used all over the world. The story involves a ’boy’ who loves a tree. She, the tree, loves him back and when he is young, they spend lots of time together. As he gets older, they spend less time and when he is with her, he is sad. He tells her he needs money and so she gives him her apples to sell. He comes back when he is older and needs a home for his family, so she gives him her branches. When he is older still and needs a boat, she gives him her trunk. The book ends with him sitting on her stump looking sad.

 

After discussing with my children about whether the boy was right or wrong, and did he know whether he was right or wrong, I asked the children to think back to similar situation for themselves. Had this happened to them or a family member? After some time in serious thought, I asked them to each tell a story, in third person, about a similar situation.

Third person is ideal for this type of personal story telling because it allows children to confide in others without blame because officially it ‘isn’t them’ in the story.

 

Wow did we tear up as child after child revealed a sad incident from their past, or from their family history. Most of the stories revolved around precious toys or pets who were abandoned as the child got older, but some were so poignant. Here are some of them:

 

A new nanny started to work at a family house and she was a very good worker. After tidying and cleaning the whole house, she unpacked the children’s cupboards. There were many grubby old toys slung into the back of a cupboard, and so she threw them away, knowing that the children of the house had many new shiny things to play with now. One of the toys thrown away was a dirty rag rabbit that had been loved by the daughter of the house since she was two. This rabbit had been given to her by her granny who had since died. The daughter of the house never saw that rabbit again. 

Once there was a boy who was interested in geckos, so he caught one and kept it in a box. Every day he caught insects for the gecko to eat, he chatted to eat when he returned from school, and he even taught the gecko to play with a marble. In the past year the boy found a box in his room and when he opened it, he found a pile of bones and some skin with the marble.

Years ago, there was a young woman at university who played in a girls’ band. Although the band wasn’t famous everybody loved to hear them play together and so they were offered a chance to play overseas. The young woman found out that she was pregnant with a child at that time and her dilemma was should she raise a family or go overseas with her friends in the band. That young lady now has two daughters.

 

The emotional maturity shown by these beautiful children blew me away last week. I realized again how important it is for me to teach, and how important it is for principals to teach. How else do you as a principal continue to do what drew you into the education sector originally and keeps you firing on all cylinders?