Children Full of Life (1 of 5)

I came across this video by chance and it must be one of the best videos on education I've seen. Here is a short description from the site Top Documentaries:

Mr. Kanamori, a teacher of a 4th grade class, teaches his students not only how to be students, but how to live. He gives them lessons on teamwork, community, the importance of openness, how to cope, and the harm caused by bullying.

In the award-winning documentary Children Full of Life, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori.

He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates.

Toshiro is an amazing example of what all teachers across the world should be like. He truly understands what teaching children is all about and certainly made a positive difference in the lives of these 10 year olds.

I recall teachers' unhappy experiences with their students' journal writing, and when I listened to the journal entries these children wrote, it is crystal clear where we have failed in our teaching. Please watch all 5 parts of this moving video. I hope it will help us all rethink what we need to do as teachers.