The child of glass
Parables and Illustrations for Values Education |
In his grammar of fantasy, Gianni Rodari tells us that once was born a transparent child. Although he was flesh and blood, you could see through it as if it were glass: he saw beating heart, and looked him their thoughts and feelings as if they were small fish of colors.
Once you told a lie and immediately everyone saw as a globe of fire across their front. He returned to tell the truth and the yellow balloon was deleted you. In this way did not return to lie the rest of his life.
The child was called Jaime and people called it the child of glass, and everyone wanted him for his sincerity and loyalty. As they saw it as good, they were also very friendly with him.
One day, in that country the military rose up and he came to power a very cruel dictator. He started a real ordeal for people who were mistreated and repressed violently. If someone dared to protest, they disappeared without a trace. If someone is indignant, they were taking him to the wall and shot without a trial. The people remained silent and suffering in silence. Jaime, without words, expressed clearly his feelings and anyone could read on his forehead pain by misery and condemnation the tyrant by his unfair and cruel way of governing.
One of his minions told the dictator of that special child and when they took him to his presence and saw their ideas and feelings, commanded that they imprison him in the dark and terrible black holes. And it came to pass that the walls of the cell where it was Jaime became transparent coup, and similarly, the walls were transparent, and everyone went to read the ideas and feelings of the mind and the heart of Jaime. At night, the cell was a focus that threw a great light, and the tyrant could neither sleep nor rest even if you close all the windows of the Palace.
Chained and deprived of freedom, Jaime was more powerful than the tyrant, the truth is stronger than anything, lighter than the light of day, more fearsome than a raging hurricane.
We teach students the extraordinary value of sincerity. Today day lies much and without the least shame. Some lie so much that they have even lost consciousness that are lying and come to believe that what they say is true. And advertising and the rhetoric of the politicians has made lie the key to its success. We live in a world of charlatans and pimps, caught up in the sound of her hollow talk. Therefore, it is urgent to give the word its value. Educating to make the word expression of life, commitment. «My word go ahead», as still saying some farmers when they engage with someone. And you know that, if they insist their word, they will meet no matter what.
"The truth will make you free", said the Master Jesus. The truth is open to the other, be willing to listen, know dialogue. The dialogue calls for humility, calls for understanding, put in the shoes of the other. It requires honesty, respect, bases for understanding. The other is not a mere echo of my voice. Nobody owns the truth. Dialogue reconciling demands justice. The generous and supportive team. Those who dominate, separated. Dialogue tolerance, virtue that teaches us to live with the different, to respect thought contrary to mine and the subject who thinks it is needed. Being tolerant does not mean denying the conflict or flee from it. On the contrary, the tolerant will be more authentic how better to defend its position if it is convinced of his rightness. Without grace, genuine democracy is not possible. Teach democracy involves the testimony coherent, not to deny students the right to be different, not to deny his word, his reading of the world. And it is that genuine education is aimed at motivating the autonomy, not submission. Educating for democracy involves educating for uncertainty. Only dictatorships and authoritarianisms are filled with certainties. Genuine educator, more that instill answers and imposing the repetition of formulas, concepts and data, orients students toward the creation and the discovery, arising from questioning the reality of every day and wonder permanently. The consistency of the criticism is self-criticism. Deny other criticism is not destroy the other, but above all to destroy himself as a critic. Authoritarian not only denies the freedom of others, but your own to transform it into the immoral right to crush the other freedoms.