I'm taking teaching profession course at university to get an English teaching licence at junior high school and high school. I'll have a teaching training at a junior high school in Kumomoto city for 3 weeks next month. During my training at a junior high school, I also have to teach ethics besides English. I think "The Giving Tree" is a good book to let students learn "sensitivity". There is a Japanese version translated by a Japanese man but I want students to feel as I felt so I read Original English version and translated it.
There appear only two characters in this story. They are a little boy and a big apple tree. The boy loved the tree and he would come to the tree to play with her every day. He loved climbing up her trunk, swinging from her branches, eating apples, playing hide-and-go-seek and sleeping in her shade. The tree was very happy.
But time went by and as the boy grew older. He got a girl friend and the tree were often alone.
One day the boy visited the tree and the tree asked him to play together but he refused the offer. Instead of that, he asked her to give him some money to buy things. She told him to take her apple and sell them. Then he took all her apples. The tree was happy.
The boy didn't show up in front of her for a long time.
Then one day, the boy came back. He seemed to be in his 30's. The tree shook with joy and asked him to play together. However, he refused the offer again and told her that he wanted to buy a house. He asked her to give him a house. She told him to cut off her branches and build a house. So the boy cut off all her branches and carried them away. The tree was still happy.
The boy didn't show up in front of her for a long time again.
When he came back, the tree could hardly speak because she was so happy. The boy seemed to be in his 40's. Again she asked him to play together but he refused the offer. He asked her to give him a boat to take him far away from there. So the tree told him to cut down her trunk and made a boat. The boy cut down her trunk, made a boat and sailed away. This time, the tree was not happy anymore.
Again, the boy didn't show up for a long time. And when he came back, the tree told him that she didn't have anything left to give him. She said sorry many times.
Then the boy, who seemed to be in his 70's, said that he didn't need anything anymore but a quiet place to sit and rest. Listening to him, the tree straightened herself up as much as she could and told him that an old stump is good for sitting and resting. She told him to came and sit down on her. So the boy sit down on her and rest.
The tree was happy.
I think the relationship between tree and the boy is like a mother and a son. In this story, even though the boy get older the tree still calls him "boy". For any parents children will be children forever. It's natural to have periods of rebelliousness when you become a teenager so I want kids to have the periods. However, I think the shorter the period the more kids can have good relationship with their parents. I want junior high school students to realize how their parents feel when they are on the periods reading this book. When I get children in the future, I want to read this book to them.
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