Thursday; November 9
Some of us didn’t grow up with Mr. Rogers – for us, our favorite authority figure was Captain Kangaroo. Bob Keeshan helped raise generations of children with the assistance of Mr. Green Jeans, Mr. Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose. I recently came across a quote by Keeshan who observed, “ It is my contention that most people are not mugged every day, that most people in this world do not encounter violence every day. I think we prepare people for violence, and I think it just as important that we prepare people for the definition of being gentle. … for so many years gentle has been equated with weakness but it requires more strength to be gentle. So it's the everyday encounters of life that I think we prepare children for and prepare them to be good to other people and to consider other people. ” As I reflected on this observation I realized that we spend a lot of time working with our children preparing to be live in an adversarial world, but what would happen if we helped them expe