“The Watermelon Hunter”

Editorial by Robert Kirwan

   As I was working on a story one day I reflected upon a mission statement: “All knowledge is sacred." I found my thoughts drifting off to an article I once read entitled ‘The Watermelon Hunter’. I would like to share it with you at this time.
 
   “Once upon a time there was a man who strayed from his own country into the world known as the Land of Fools . He soon saw a number of people flying in terror from a field where they had been trying to reap wheat. "There is a monster in that field," they told him. He looked, and saw that the "monster" was merely a watermelon.
 
   He offered to kill the "monster" for them. When he had cut the melon from its stalk, he took a slice and began to eat it. The people became even more terrified of him than they had been of the melon. They drove him away with pitchforks, crying, "He will kill us next, unless we get rid of him."
 
   It so happened that shortly afterward another man also strayed into the Land of Fools . But instead of offering to help the people with the "monster," he agreed with them that it must be dangerous, and by tiptoeing away from it with them he gained their confidence. He spent a long time with them in their homes until he could teach them, little by little, the basic facts which would enable them not only to lose their fear of melons, but eventually to cultivate melons themselves.”
 
   The first person who wandered into the “ Land of Fools ” made the mistake of “killing the monster” for the people. This action may have removed the immediate problem, but it didn’t comfort the “Fools” because they still held on to the original fear that had made them terrified of melons in the first place.
 
   The second person gained the confidence of the people from the ‘ Land of Fools ’ and was able to slowly teach them basic facts that enabled them to lose their fear of melons.
 
   And so, the second person in the story helped the people in the ‘ Land of Fools ’ by showing them not only how to overcome their fear of the ‘unknown’, but to also embrace the melons and cultivate them for their own benefit.
 
   I also reflected on a time early in my career as an elementary school teacher when I learned something very important about my role in the development of effective ‘learning skills’ in my students. One day a student stood up and explained that he would not be able to complete a written assignment that I had just given to the class.  The student explained that he was ‘Educable Mentally Retarded’ and attended special education classes. When the other students began laughing at him, I immediately stopped the lesson and reminded all of the children that someone else’s opinion of them did not have to become their reality. I further told them that no one ever “rises to low expectations” and that as long as they were in my class they were going to be treated as if they were all capable of greatness. I explained that it was my job as their teacher to make sure that they had the skills, confidence and self-esteem to take on any and all challenges and that I would never give them an assignment of which they were not capable of performing. That day changed me forever as a teacher and it changed the way I challenged my students. I adopted the philosophy that if you look at a child the way he is, he only becomes worse. But look at him as if he were what he could be, and then he becomes what he should be.
 
   From that day forward I always had high expectations of my students, and pushed myself to make sure they all had the skills they needed to “learn for themselves”.
 
   Remember that there is greatness inside each and every one of us. As parents, we must do everything we can to provide our children with the skills and attitudes that will make them hunger for knowledge. We must teach them not to fear the “melons they come across in their lives”, but rather to embrace them and learn how to “cultivate this new knowledge” for their benefit and for the benefit of others around them.
 
   Have a good week!