More Encouragement, Less Civil War!

   Civil war. Once you hear that word, what do you think of? I think of soldiers on the battlefield still fighting. I can see dead bodies everywhere. I can hear gunshots and soldiers screaming. I learned about the English Civil Wars in Mystery Of History and my thoughts say that civil wars are worse than normal wars because nations rise up against their own people, and their own people get hurt and die. It’s worse than different nations fighting against each other!

   This is actually related to the character trait I’m learning now, encouragement. Encouragement is giving confidence to someone by supporting or praising that person. If your actions or words don’t encourage other people, civil war can happen. Your friends or family members would go against you and boom! Civil war. 

   It’s just like in a family. When we don’t encourage each other, the confidence of family members go down and they won’t be able to encourage others too. The result is like civil war. 

   Nowadays, we’ve been having “civil wars” in our house. Sometimes, my sister and I don’t obey our parents, especially our mom. Our actions don’t encourage them, so they don’t get to encourage us back out of anger and frustration. Sometimes, we would just get into each other’s nerves all day.  That’s why we should be mindful of our actions and words, so that we may prevent “civil war” from happening. We should always try to encourage other people by saying the right words and doing the right actions. When we encourage, we build up the other person. We should encourage others, so that they can be soldiers of God who believe that they can be a source of love and peace. And while we’re doing that, we’re becoming God’s soldiers ourselves, who protect our own families from “civil wars” and breaking down.

A Messenger

   “Who is John Amos Comenius?” The answer is simple. John Amos Comenius is known as “The Father of Modern Education”. He wanted to improve the education system during his time. When he was 64 (1658), he put together the first textbook for children that had as many pictures as words, which I think might have helped the kids to actually be able to “see” the picture the words are talking about. He was also a messenger during the Thirty Years War because he believed that ALL kids should have the right to study even though they are rich or poor. What is a messenger? A messenger is a person who gives us good advice and brings God’s message. John is God’s messenger for education!

In 1632, he decided to publish some of his great ideas about learning which were: 

1. Education should be available to all children whether they are rich, poor, male or female. (Can you believe that 80% of Europe didn’t know how to read or write?) 

2. Education should be realistic and use concrete objects or nature whenever possible to teach abstract things. 

3. Education should include the training of the body as well as of the mind through outdoor play and sports. 

4. Education should be practical and teach things that help with the ordinary business of life. 

5. Education should include the study of Science. 

6. Education should ultimately improve one’s character and produce order and happiness for others. 

    These ideas are very brilliant and are already being applied today. How? 

1. Private schools, public schools, and some people who go around teaching unfortunate kids (like Efren Penaflorida) 

2. Field trips 

3. P.E. and sports

4. Livelihood skills, survival skills

5. The subject, Science! 

6. Character, Christian Living  

   After reading these ideas, I decided to think of my own. How do I want to learn and what do I want to learn? 

1. I want to learn by going outside and applying what I learned there. In some classes, it would be held in a room but most of the classes would be held in different places like parks, kitchens of restaurants, lab, animal clinics, and zoos.

2. There should be a Survival Skills class, so that the kids can learn skills like cooking and washing clothes. As they grow older, they will learn about more advanced skills like knot-tying.

   I hope that one day, there would be schools everywhere that teach unfortunate kids for free or maybe more people who take the initiative to go around and teach kids. I have one question for you though, what would you like to do or change so that education would be more fun?