FRAGMENT FROM
THE BOOK ON VIRTUES
"ABOUT FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND WISDOM"

CARE FOR OTHERS. GETNTLENESS

LESSON 19 FROM THE BOOK ON VIRTUES

GENTLENESS & CARE FOR OTHERS

Game "Who is the most Gentle? "

Ask children to think about this question: what person can be named gentle? Ask them for what reason this person is gentle. Then try to list the qualities of this person. For example: kindness, humility, modesty, complaisance, etc. Then children should think about objects in nature, which can be called gentle, like for example the sea, when it quiet and transparent or the sky, when it azure and cloudless, etc.

After that children have to rise and stand in a row. The teacher throws a ball by turns to each child and asks him to explain, why those or other inhabitants of this world are gentle. The one who can answer a question of the teacher, makes a step forward. The first child which reaches up to the teacher becomes the new leader, and the game repeats itself in a similar way.

CONVERSATION

Questions and tasks for conversation:

• Did you ever meet gentle and kind people? If so, than in what these people differ from all others?

• Can you call yourself a gentle kind person?

• Can you say by means of the face of a person, whether he is gentle or not?

• What animals (birds, insects, etc.) seem to you gentle and mild, and why?

• Whether gentleness has got similar qualities? List them. (Humility, modesty, tenderness)

Read to the children this Indian fairy tale:

THE GIFT OF THE PIGEON

At the corner of one small village lived a peasant called Kizhavan. He was very poor and had no relatives, even no distant relatives. But Kizhavan did not grieve. He had many friends amongst the inhabitants of the forest, amongst animals and birds. And who has got a lot of friends, he can't be lonely. Kizhavan knew the language of the animals and the birds quite well. If he met someone from the forest inhabitants, he talked to it. Then his heart became happy. Birds, having caught sight of Kizhavan, always welcomed him by their joyful singing.

Kizhavan lived in a small hovel. Once he was very hungry, but there was nothing eatable in the house. So Kizhavan took a stick and went to the forest. For quite some time he was wandering there, but did not find anything and decided to turn back to the house.

“Please help me!” he suddenly heard a voice. Kizhavan turned back and saw a ruffled up pigeon.

”I cannot fly! Rescue me!”, the pigeon asked with helplessness in its voice. Kizhavan felt pity for the defenceless pigeon. He lifted it up from the ground, tenderly pressed it to itself and continued on his way. At home Kizhavan cautiously put this bird on his bed.

”You will live with me until you will have regained your health. Don't be afraid, I won't allow anyone to hurt you. I will protect you and help you with everything that I can do. The problem only is, that at the moment I don't have any food and so I can't feed you. There is absolutely nothing in my house now,” said Kizhavan in a sad voice.

”Don't grieve,” the pigeon consoled him, “in the forest there is a big mango tree. In its hollow lays rice. Go there and take this rice!”

Kizhavan, without delaying, went to the forest in search for this mango tree. He went this way, then the other way, but he didn't find this tree anywhere. At the end Kizhavan became very tired. He sat down on a small hill to rest. And… when he looked up he saw the mango tree standing directly before him. Kizhavan looked in the hollow thereof and discovered, that there was a handful of rice in it, and around this rice there were many sparkling and shining diamonds and other gemstones. Kizhavan looked at this treasure without any interest.

"These stones are useless to me! In fact I am not going to decorate myself with them," he thought to himself. So, having taken only that handful of rice, he returned to his house and at the threshold he saw a second pigeon. As soon as Kizhavan opened his door this pigeon flew inside and sat near its sick friend. The two birds started to talk joyfully. Kizhavan gave all the rice to both of them. While they ate it all he admired the two birds.

“Why you did not leave any rice for yourself?” asked the second pigeon Kizhavan.
”Well, in fact, there was not much rice. It was only enough for you. Anyhow, I shall survive, I won't die so easy,” answered Kizhavan. The pigeon then went out from his house and soon returned, bearing something in its beak. It appeared to be a golden ring.

“Take this ring and wear it on your finger. As long as you won't take it off, you will have everything, that will wish,” the pigeon told to Kizhavan.
”If that is true, then I thank you,” said Kizhavan. “I only want to have some bread and milk, and nothing more”. In no time on his table appeared a small plateau with fresh, nice smelling bread and a cup of milk. Kizhavan then drank some milk, ate a slice of bread, and the rest he gave to the pigeons. Since then Kizhavan lived happily. Everything, that is necessary for life, he got with the help of the ring, the gift of his friend the pigeon.

Questions and tasks about the fairy tale:

•  What could happen to Kizhavan if the jewels would have made him forget the hungry pigeon?

•  Is it possible, in your opinion, to call Kizhavan a gentle person? Why is that so?

•  In which language spoke Kizhavan with the animals and the birds?

•  Have there been moments in your life when you too could understand the language of animals and the birds?

•  If you would have received a magic ring from the pigeon, what you would ask from it for yourself, for your family and for your friends?

Picture "Gifts from inhabitants of a forest "

Distribute to the children cards with pictures of different forest's inhabitants. Ask the children to tell how kind Kizhavan has helped the forest's inhabitants. For example : Kizhavan has healed the broken paw of a squirrel; he has returned the small lupus, which was lost in a forest to its mum; he has rescued the nestlings of an oriole from a black falcon, etc.

Then ask the children to make a drawing, how different forest's inhabitants thanked Kizhavan for his kindness. For example: the squirrel gave him white mushrooms; lupus will show to him the place where on can find berries, etc.

The creative task " the Mild word "

•  Read to the children a proverb: "A kind word is stronger than anger".

•  Divide children into pairs. Each pair should make up examples of kind words and kind gestures, which can pacify anybody in anger; the same exercise in order to calm a person who has fallen and hurt himself; the same exercise to reconcile two friends; the same exercise to support a person who has lost money, etc.

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