Substitute Teaching, Four Year Olds, and an Iranian Film

Well, I’m finally back. Last week it was work, communicating back forth about a job offer abroad, and just wasting time and dealing with trivial things that resulted in me not posting. I really did not feel like writing even though I have vowed to myself to post at least once a week.

Last week I worked with a class for two days that I really enjoyed even though they were already tiring out the teacher, Mrs. Peasley, who has only had them only a month. School re-opened a month ago. This group were pre-K (pre-kindergarten); all of them 4 year olds. They were the cutest bunch. The shortest with kissable baby faces were Zimir and Jorge. I just loved to watch these two. Zimir had light coffee colored skin with these wonderful, bright, expressive eyes in an oval face. He was tiny and a dynamo of energy. We really had to watch him sometimes, especially in the bathroom. He would go in there during bathroom break and just play. During recess, he would prance around, the lone wolf on the playground. His high top tennis shoes were so little that they looked like the white high topped baby shoes the infants and toddlers wore in my generation.

Where Zimir’s little mouth would just fire off at times, Jorge was the silent type. He was diminutive too with kissable baby cheeks, soft, feathery black hair, and olive skin. He would always come up to me, mumbling something in either English or Spanish, which I could not understand. He was so soft spoken. There were no problems with Jorge; playing in the bathroom was not his speed. He was very obedient.

Mrs. Peasley’s two main complaints with her class were that they were not very good at following directions, and that they did not seem to have a creative bone in their body. They have any interest in the educational games she had out during play time in her room. They went for activities that did not require too much brain power. We both knew the reason for this. Their parents or guardians were giving them little if any educational stimulation outside of school.

Like most kids in our country they were probably spending too much time in front of the television. Television does not inspire the creative juices to flow. The current state of American television shows and news is so appallingly mediocre, how can anything of value be learned from them? That is why I don’t look at a lot of television. I am also trying to wean myself from so much internet usage too, but not because of its’ mediocrity. Nothing should become an addiction.

Speaking of kids, a few years ago I learned about a producer of films for kids that also have wonderful messages for adults. This producer is award winning Iranian film maker Majid Majidi. I have seen three of his films, Color Paradise, Baran, and Children of Heaven. All three of these films sort of end with a question mark. After seeing each one I had the after taste of wondering what happened to some of the characters. Did they survive? Were they surprised that a need was answered? Did they turn out to be better people after their experiences?

Here I will only give you a taste of Children of Heaven which is my favorite of the three films. Children of Heaven is the story of a boy named Ali and his little sister Zahra. One day when Ali is at the market, he puts down his sister’s shoes which he has just gotten back from the man who repaired them. While he is shopping, a garbage man comes along and picks up the shoes that still look rather shabby. He thinks they were being thrown out. When Ali goes back for them, the shoes are missing. He does not have a clue what could have happened to them.

When he gets home he tells his sister that he has lost her only pair of shoes. Both Ali and Zahra are too afraid to tell their parents that the shoes are gone. Without them, Zahra cannot go to school. Their family is poor and cannot afford to buy another part of shoes. The two devise a secret pact. Ali has a pair of old wore out tennis shoes that he wears to school. They will share. Zahra goes to school in the morning, so she will wear the shoes, that are too big for her. At the end of her classes at noon, she will give the shoes back to Ali so he can wear them to his classes. The two have many adventures centering on their trying to keep the secret from their parents. Eventually, one day at on the school playground Zahra sees a little girl with her old lost shoes on. She decides to get them back. She follows the girl home after school. Then she goes and tells Ali. He goes with her so they can confront the girl and get the shoes back. On arriving near the girl’s home, they see her, her mother, and father come out. The father is off to “work.” But he is not able bodied like Ali and Zahra’s father. He is blind and goes out peddling the few little items they have to sell. Ali and Zahra realize that though they are poor, this little girl and her family are poorer. Their father has a job at the mosque making tea. He has also started going around doing yard work for wealthy people. Life seems to be getting better for them. They do not try to get the shoes back since they both have compassion for the family. The movie goes on, and Ali participates in a race with many other children from other schools. His wish is to win so he can get shoes for his sister.

Children of Heaven was filmed in Tehran where it premiered in 1997. It has won a number of awards and was up for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1998. It was the first Iranian film to be nominated. It lost, however, to Life is Beautiful.

Children of Heaven is a heartwarming story of family, school days, love, loyalty, and unselfishness centering around a pair of shoes. I cannot imagine Hollywood having the creativity of making a film whose plot centers around shoes without the story being boring or over the top. Film critic Robert Ebert reviewed the movie saying, “very nearly a perfect movie for children" that "lacks the cynicism and smart-mouth attitudes of so much American entertainment for kids and glows with a kind of good-hearted purity." It does, and it is very much worth seeing.

As an aside, my friend from Iran named Nasrin, who lives in the next neighborhood over from mine sent me information on an article that was featured last month in National Geographic about Iran: Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran. I took the interactive cultural quiz also on Iran which can be accessed here. I scored a 75. Take it, and let me know what your score is.