by Yael Karakowsky
Antonio arrives to the classroom, greets the children and sits with them. He is holding under his arm a box of wooden toys. Kids are excited by his visit; it seems like a fun activity. One by one, Antonio takes out the wooden characters from the box, and so, the adventure begins. He gives each child a character in the story, and all of them, unwittingly, become involved in his history.
Antonio was born in Veracruz, and he remembers his departure to Mexico City as if it were yesterday. He was around 5 years old when his father got a better job opportunity. For him, “Goodbyes on trains are just like in the movies…. The saddest ones.” “Have you seen one?” He asks the children, and while he does so, he takes out a wooden train from his box. It was time to leave Veracruz, time to start a new life and deal with new challenges as a family.
While listening to his words and seeing the movement of the train, it was clear that the children were filled with sadness. It was certainly different from what Antonio experienced…but they were attentive both to his words and his heart.
– “Goodbye to my cat.” (Antonio asks a child for the wooden cat, and removes it from the scene while mentioning these words.)
– “Goodbye to my friends.” (Again, he asks those who are holding these characters to put them away.)
– “Now…My grandparents? Goodbye, too.” (And again, he removes pieces from the game.)
Little by little, the staging remains with fewer characters and the children’s’ faces show surprise, sadness and empathy.
Suddenly, there is a twist in the story. Even though Antonio recalls this experience as a sad and difficult moment, Mexico City had its charms. After some time and while requiring some effort on his part, he now perceives Mexico City as a city that gave him many opportunities. He found new friends, learned new things, met his wife, and has formed a beautiful family. Today, he is in the classroom in order to share a life experience with Mariana, his daughter. (In anticipation of his visit to the classroom, Mariana and the rest of the children prepared a thank you note for him. She greeted her father eagerly on the day of his visit.)
This is how Antonio participates in the Project Educating for Failure, Seeking Success. We narrate real stories to children, or as Antonio wrote in his own story and said to Mariana: “I have been asked to tell you a story, but this is not a story Mariana…this is part of my history.”
Educating for Failure, Seeking Success seeks to involve parents actively in their children’s education. How? By providing children with real stories, life experiences through which parents become “humanized” and are much more than “perfect” images. Through this project, each parent is invited to write about a personal encounter with failure, pain or difficulty that can be used to teach and be an example of a learning experience.
Why? Because we were probably all educated to seek success, not realizing that failure is inevitably a part of the journey. Because dealing with failure at the outset can be the first step to success. Because a person that grows by learning may be more prepared to face an unpredictable life and have better tools while dealing with future frustrations. What for? To share a life lesson, to teach children that in life it may take many plantings before you can, successfully, harvest your crops.
Like all stories, our stories have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. It is important to consider that the conclusion of these stories does not refer to a solution, but a proposal to address the challenge. The project seeks to share with children that not all stories have a solution, since life doesn’t offer solutions for everything.
I considered the Project a success. After these experiences and by their own initiative, kids started writing and sharing their own stories. Suddenly, the classroom was full of stories, all being heard and respected. The librarian was amazed after receiving a donation from one of the kids – he wanted to keep his “book” on the library shelf, expecting everyone in school to be able to read and understand him. Would I do it again? The more I read, the more I hear, and the more I perceive…the more I learn. So yes, I would do it again, and again.