News - March 2004
Travels with my stick insect
Caroline Egar, Programme Manager for Zippy's Friends, writes about the pleasures of travelling to the various countries where Zippy's Friends is running, to see classes in action and talk to teachers and parents.
The first thing that strikes me is that children everywhere love Zippy. Many of them have never heard of stick insects until they meet him, but he soon wins a special place in their affections. When a teacher in Denmark handed out rubbers and pencils, her children were excited because Zippy's picture was printed on them. Some classes keep a real stick insect in a tank, and many teachers make model Zippys. In one classroom in northern England, Zippy sits in the window, watching over the children in the playground. And children in Goa, India, feel so close to Zippy that they even write him letters - some of which end up on my desk and make delightful reading.Teachers often worry that the children won't talk about the topics in the programme - and are then amazed when they readily contribute, even when the ideas seem quite profound or difficult.
I listened as one little boy in Lithuania related how he'd had a fight with his mum. 'She told me to leave home,' he said. 'What can we do to help him?' asked the teacher. 'Talk to him, and tell him to talk to his mum,' 'Say he's sorry,' 'Make up with her,' suggested his friends.
A head teacher said a mother had thanked him profusely for running Zippy's Friends in her son's class. He'd never spoken freely about his feelings before, she said, but after the session on 'feeling jealous' he came home and suddenly started telling his mum how he felt. 'It was like the floodgates opening,' she said.
When I ask teachers whether they have noticed changes in their children's behaviour, they invariably say the same thing - 'Yes, they've become much better at resolving conflicts.'
Kindergaten
In a Danish classroom, a group of seven year-olds told me how they loved the difference of the Zippy sessions, which gave them the chance to discuss issues and role-play. Kirsten, their teacher, made a point of bringing real-life examples, such as playground disputes, into the class discussions. When I asked one boy what he'd learnt from the programme, he said, 'If a boy kicks me, I don't kick him back - I ask him why he did it.'Zippy's influence can even spread to life at home. One mother in Lithuania came up to me after the final session, full of praise for the programme. 'Zippy has transformed our family life!' she said. 'I couldn't believe it when I found he was just a stick insect! Our youngest child comes home and tells his brothers at the evening meal how they should talk one at a time, and listen properly to each other.' Just the other day, I heard of a family in England which now has 'Zippy time' after the evening meal, when each member of the family shares their thoughts and feelings. 'The most amazing thing,' said the mother, 'is that even my husband joins in!'
This a shortened version of an article that appears in the new Introductory Booklet about Zippy's Friends.
> See the full article in PDF format (1.3MB)