Mr. Noel and two wallets with pens or lessons before school starts
2025-09-06 20:04:31
Manjola Lloja Bushati
By Manjola Lloja Bushati/ A striped fish, with unusual colors, on a white sheet, was one day on the wall of my daughter's room.
"Who is this?" I asked.
-Where did you see this in a book or on YouTube?
"I found it in my mind," my 7-year-old told me.
The fish had gotten into the pocket of his pants when a child went into the pool with his clothes on because he had forgotten his swimsuit. It was colorful because when his pants got wet, its colors stuck to its scales...and its name is Noel...well, that's what a friend of my sister's is called, why wasn't the fish of the mind called that too? :)
He said this to remind me that my question should actually be: - How did you create this, where did this inspiration come from? Why did I think that
Had he simply copied something ready-made, seen somewhere?!
Then we continued with the shopping for the beginning of the school year.
My daughter taught me the second lesson. She asked for two pencil cases. And when I started my theories, not one, why two... like that not very meaningful squash game from my childhood, the girl's reason again surprised me.
She needed the second pencil case for any of her classmates who might forget it, and she would help them not to be left without working in class. Her empathy left me speechless.
So while I was thinking of dedicating this week's post to the start of school, the two episodes above took the place of any adult thoughts I wanted to throw into this post.
Please, teachers and parents, between the homework, the books, the worksheets...let's support our children's imagination. What if we no longer gave them tasks that chatgpt would think about solving, or the mechanical work they would "copy/paste" onto A4 sheets that no one reads?
What if, amidst the obligations of the program, we find some spaces that allow them to express their imagination? What if we don't fill drawing classes with math tests? What if a nature lesson is actually an excursion into the forest? Can literary conversation turn into a small dramatization, rather than a mechanical rewriting of the content?
We will only benefit from this. Children will learn to express themselves freely, with their own vocabulary, with their own way of understanding the world, to create new ideas, find solutions to challenges and learn these while having fun. Can we come together so that school is not boring and students are motivated to give their best?
And here we come to the second lesson, or the point where imagination and empathy come together.
By putting themselves in someone else's shoes, playing roles, creating stories, or imagining different situations, children are able to experience sensations and emotions different from those they experience themselves.
Thus, with imagination, they can better understand the feelings, thoughts, and perspectives of others. Children will learn to show care, compassion, and sensitivity. Children need to become empathetic, our society needs humanity.
Everything starts in the family, of course, but school can play an irreplaceable role in this regard. The time has come!
