Sunday, October 4, 2009

Horton Hatches an Egg

Today the 1st-3rd grade class had the Dr. Seuss story Horton Hatches an Egg as an illustration of our second Unitarian Universalist principle (children's version is "offer fair and kind treatment to everyone").

After the story, the class discussed the story and the principle and were thinking of times that they had lived out that principle.

"When the door popped off my sister's toy, I put it back on for her", Carbon said.

A little girl talked about holding an ice pack on her sister's head after a fall.

Another girl said "when my neighbor loaned me her skate board, I took really good care of it."

Then the conversation turned to Horton and the bird Maisy. The kids had a bit of a harder time with the fact that Horton was kind and loyal, and Maisy was mean and lazy, and yet Horton was kind to Maisy. The conversation turned to times they hadn't wanted to be nice to someone, times when they thought someone didn't deserve kindness.

As the kids fell silent, many of them frowning, the volunteer teacher (with a great sense of timing - he was great with them today) softly said "but that's why it says everyone. Because sometimes it's hard, but those folks might need the most kindness of all."

When I eavesdrop on that kind of an interaction, I really love Religious Education.

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