Translator: Robert Deliman Reviewer: Denise RQ
(Video)
It all started when a woman came up to the hill we live on.
She rang the bell and all the children in the village came.
She came with a donkey with a lot of books.
We had never seen children's books.
They had lots of pictures and came from a Nordic country.
The woman invited us to go to the library.
Now we draw comics of our life here.
Anne Hansen: Do you remember that a little while ago
one of the speakers
talked about Nietzsche's inner desert?
I think that our books
and the reason why they are still so popular among the children
is precisely because they scare the inner desert away.
Now I'm going to read a story called "The Sprout"
by Pia Thauler, a Danish author.
"The Sprout" is about a little boy who wants to grow a bean.
So, he's got the bean in his hand and then...
he sows the bean and the cat, a friend of his, is looking.
Then the kid waters the soil
around the plant
and he's stuck a stick so that he'll know where the bean will sprout.
And then he sits down
and the sun heats the fertile soil for his sprout
and, suddenly, it came out of the ground.
This is a little miracle I have never understood:
why roots don't come out while the stem grows underground, but that's life.
(Laughter)
Then the plant grows and the cat finds something to play with,
and the little boy has to make decisions and shoos his cat away.
Then the rain comes
and the boy is there, taking care of his plant
and the plant keeps growing and the rain helps it grow
and suddenly, a pair of rabbits show up, and they are hungry,
and they see food and so they start eating.
Then the child has to protect his plant once again,
and he builds a fence around it.
And so the plant is protected and can keep growing.
But then the pigeons come, and they also see food,
and they decide to eat something,
and the child has to put up a scarecrow to scare the pigeons away.
But then the butterflies come,
and the butterflies pollinate
the flowers of the plant,
and that is very important for it to grow pods.
And in the end, the child sees
that there is a crop of a lot of bean pods.
His project has been successful,
and now he is very happy.
And when one is very happy, one can have a party
and invite all of their friends, even the cat was there
(Laughter)
but he's forgiven now.
Yes, because one also becomes extra generous when one is successful.
So, this is a short story with no written text
which can help people who cannot read very well,
but want to read something to their kids.
That is one thing.
Another thing is that this kind of book that we have in our libraries
can be interpreted at different levels,
and this one has a meta-reading
which in this case would be, now, you remember the story, right?
So, there's a main character who has a project.
And this main character has a certain knowledge and certain qualities.
He knows what time of the year to sow the seeds,
he knows there's sun, and rain, and butterflies.
He knows that's all nature he must respect,
if he doesn't want to be taken over by the inner desert.
He also has certain skills, he knows how to build a fence,
he can make a scarecrow,
and he has the guts to shoo his cat away with a rake.
And all that is necessary for him to be successful.
And I think that if you know that you have a project
you plan and try for it to work out.
And when it does, you are happy and rewarded,
and you can start to work on a new project.
And this leads me to talk about a very different story,
which is called "Kenny and the Barbie dolls".
Kenny is a kindergarten boy who is very good at football.
But one day, he decides that he wants to play with Barbies.
So he has one hidden at home, because his dad doesn't like it;
his dad wants him to play football.
So, the boy brings his Barbie to the kindergarten,
and he meets the girls who are all playing,
and have absolutely no interest in playing with him.
And they ignore him, we could say.
But he insists and stays there with his Barbie.
And suddenly someone asks him, "So, what's her name?"
"Her name is Barbie." "No, no. She can't be just called Barbie."
But he ends up joining in anyway.
and, suddenly, Kenny's Barbie
gives birth to a piece of fish.
Nobody knows how, but that's what happened.
(Laughter)
And then, without a warning,
they drop the Barbie dolls
and run into the other room to dress up as princesses.
Everyone. As princesses. Here they are dancing as you can see.
So the kids outside are waiting for Kenny to come and play football.
Why isn't he coming? Why?
So they go into the room to see what's going on.
And they see him having so much fun, they also want to dress up as princesses.
So everyone, both boys and girls,
was dressed as princesses, dancing and having a wonderful time.
And suddenly, a grown-up comes and all the children stand still.
The game is over. Something happened.
The grown-up checks that everyone is alive and well, picks up some things and leaves.
And all the children keep playing.
And suddenly they all go out, pick up the ball and start to play football.
And the game can go on and on
until the end of the world,
because there are no rules, at least no written rules.
Kids don't know about goals and why and there needs to be learning,
and there needs to be a curriculum, and grades; none of that.
So that kind of game inspires you as a human being.
Inspires you to try out new things.
Kenny managed to join the girls and be respected.
The other boys began to play and dressed up as princesses.
And children don't have
the idea in mind that something has to be a result
that can lead to something else.
And this leads us to think about
the different kinds of games and different kinds of books.
There are books in which some adult thought that kids should learn
to count to 10, or the vowels, or the colours.
And that kind of game or book
has an abyss at the end.
Once you've learned these things,
and you've got good grades for mum and dad to be happy,
there's no more.
And then Nietzsche and the inner desert start to take over.
Because the child gets bored and doesn't know what to do with all that.
While this game is not conducted by anyone.
The kids spontaneously say,
"Let's do this, let's go up there. Let's see what happens."
That's the contrast between what we,
as grown-ups call "the inner child."
Because we all have an inner child.
And when there is a situation
which involves learning or communication
like the ones we encounter daily at the library;
the child who is listening identifies
with the child in the book,
and the grown-up who tells the story
need to be in close contact with his or her own inner child.
Otherwise it doesn't work.
The child feels spoiled,
sometimes they speak "like this" and the child feels ridiculed,
but because they don't want to get bad grades they don't say anything and so on.
Now that we are talking and thinking about this,
I also think there's an inner child to the author,
and there's also the illustrator's inner child.
So it's 5 children, right? Right.
So it is a group of children who enjoy listening
and growing and learning through books like these.
And this brings us to our work of 15 years on the hills with children
who are known as "damaged children" here.
And I wonder, damaged by whom? But that's a different matter.
And they, as Priscilla said, have made a magazine.
And we have now reached number 14.
Number 14 is out now
because the children who started to make the magazine have grown now.
And they have now made a magazine for teenagers.
And we thought they were leaving now, but they weren't.
They were so sad and offended that we had to continue
and now there are two magazines for teenagers
and a magazine for children.
And another magazine was made in Contulmo,
and some people from Argentina have come and are planning--
but they talk a lot, and I'm not sure they are making magazines.
Anyways.
(Laughter)
Well, I always think
that they'll hopefully be inspired, right?
So, we have two libraries in Valparaíso
for children of all ages:
from 8 months to 14 years old,
and they all contribute with drawings and so on.
And stories. And they talk about their inner life.
They talk about their experience as human beings,
living, and having, conflicts, and solving those conflicts.
And being happy and sharing that happiness.
So that's it. I'm done, right? That's it.
(Applause)