School is not just about learning to count, read, and write. There are other values that are also important to learn, such as respect and how to treat others. Harassment and bullying still occurs in schools everywhere and different teachers resort to different methods to spread awareness and consciousness of this issue among their students. But the teacher in this story proves that there are no limits to how creative one can get when trying to pass along a critical message. She begins by asking her students to bring tomatoes to class marking their tomatoes with the names of classmates they hate. Needless to say, the students never expected the next step in her plan… I can’t say for sure whether this happened in real life or not, but what’s for certain is this teacher’s message is really worth spreading!
A teacher asked her students to bring some tomatoes in a plastic bag to school. Each tomato was to be given the name of a person whom that child hates. So, the number of tomatoes would be equal to the number of persons they hate.
On a pre-determined day, the children brought their tomatoes well addressed. Some had two, some had three and some had five, some even had 20 tomatoes in accordance with the number of people they hated.
The teacher then told them they had to carry the tomatoes with them everywhere they go for two weeks. As the days passed the children started to complain about the decay and smell of the tomatoes. The students who had many tomatoes complained it was very heavy to carry and the smell was too much.
After a week, the teacher asked the students “How did you feel this week?”
The children complained of the awful smell and heavy weight of the tomatoes, especially those who carried several tomatoes.
The teacher said, “This is very similar to what you carry in your heart when you don’t like some people. Hatred makes the heart unhealthy and you carry that hatred everywhere. If you can’t bear the smell of spoilt tomatoes for a week, imagine the impact of bitterness on your heart as you carry it daily.”
The heart is a beautiful garden that needs regular cleaning of unwanted weeds. Forgive those who have angered you. This makes room for storing good things.
Get Better, Not Bitter!
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