Children Full of Life

Most things you get via email are a bunch of crap, and that's not even counting all the spam. But, this email I received tonight is really worth passing on to others because I think we can all take a lesson from it and apply it to our daily lives.

The email contained links to a documentary called Children Full of Life. It followed the fourth grade class of Toshiro Kanamori at an elementary school in Kanazawa, Japan. It follows him throughout the year and highlights some tough life experiences that the kids face.

Unlike most teachers, Kanamori allows his students to dig deeper and encourages them to feel emotions from which most would shy away. He motivates his class to be compassionate and empathetic to one another but to also think independently. To do this, he has each child keep a notebook full of letters and each day students read from their notebook and share their thoughts with each other. The only rule is that the students write honestly and from their hearts.

While the children have only spent two years with Kanamori (3rd and 4th grade), they've confronted serious issues together, such as the death of family members and bullying. Kanamori's favorite word is bonding, and he hopes that by experiencing life together his students will be able to think of others before they think of themselves. He doesn't shelter them from life but helps them through difficult times without condescending to them. Sometimes it's hard to believe the kids are only 10 years old.

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