“A child is the nucleus of both society and the Church. If we nurture it we nurture an entire generation; if we lose it we lose the future of generations to come,” Pope Shenouda once said.
Word and image
Childhood, a word and a picture was the slogan of the 10th conference organised by The Childhood Committee held at al-Karma (the vine) in Ikingi Maryut, some 50km southwest of Alexandria, for priests and volunteer workers interested in pastoral service.
The conference focused on the importance of using images as a teaching aid to enrich children’s imagination and help them be more open and interactive with their counterparts and their communities. Anba Tawardros, bishop of Beheira, pointed out that one picture could work better than 1,000 words because pictures grab the attention of children. “Babies up to two years old are attracted to sources of light,” he said. “From two to seven, children begin to recognise bright colours and letters and they mostly prefer live photographs to oil paintings. From nine to 13 a child’s artistic sense begins to take shape, and he or she acquires the ability to see and think about mysterious things. After that the yearning for beauty in art intensifies.”
Hooray for technology
Anba Morqos, bishop of Shubral-Kheima, who is famous in the Church for his advocacy of exploiting modern technology to serve teaching and pastoral ends, talked about the importance of technological tools to help children acquire better knowledge. However, he warned against computer games characterised by violence.
Anba Morqos demanded that Sunday School facilitators should prepare competitions for children and should make use of modern technology such as SMS messaging to send verses from the Bible or sayings of the Saints, giving a spiritual message as well as making a child feel that his teacher cares for him.
Watch out!
This writer presented a paper on making use of attractive TV programmes in Sunday schools. A model programme was introduced which encompassed current events, scientific, cultural and spiritual information in an amusing and creative way so as to be informative while stimulating critical thinking and character building. The paper stressed the necessity of presenting accurate and simple information to avoid confusing children and misleading them.
The writer warned that if one aspires to teach children, one should exercise critical thinking oneself. She recounted a story about a father who wished to teach his son the dangers of drinking wine. He filled one cup with wine and another with water. Then he put an ant in the water and it seemed swimming, but when he put it in the wine it died immediately. The father asked his son to comment on this experiment. His son replied that if a person drank wine, no ants would live in his stomach!
Of marionettes and markets
The conference included several workshops. Tasoni (Sister) Irinie, in co-operation with Sa, a Japanese artist showed how to help children be creative with coloured paper and make puppets and animals with traditional origami. The workshop produced a model of a manger inside a plastic cup, Jonah’s whale, and puppets and paper games for children. Fr Youssef Ibrahim also made a marionette puppet out of plastic soft drinks bottles and sponges.
Other activities enlivened the events. Fr Theopholis Nessim introduced social and psychological questions on how to judge people. The winners were given a chance to do some shopping in the market at Ikingi Maryut, where young shoppers dressed in traditional garments peddled their wares in an amusing fashion. The products ranged from clothes and toys to all kinds of fruit.
The conference concluded by recommending the nomination of 100 creative children from all parishes and inviting them to attend a workshop, with prizes for the winners. Participants also called for encouraging talented children and giving them all the support they needed to improve their skills.