Talk by Carles Capevila: Educating with humor

Yesterday I attended a talk given by Carles Capdevila at my children’s school about EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN … .

The convening power he had was brutal. Between laughter and laughter, I listened attentively, feeling embarrassed and ashamed, recognizing and feeling very identified with some of the practical and “plastic” examples he gave us.

I understood that many times from satire and exaggeration we understand much better the most elementary concepts. He said very logical things that we all know and have heard before, but that from humor and irony they enter and are more easily understood. He made me think and reflect, which is no small thing, on a Tuesday night at 8 pm.

He explained that, in order to educate our children from joy and tranquility, we must not lose sight of 5 basic senses: common sense, sense of ridicule, sense of duty, moral sense and sense of humor.

Without wishing to spoil the expectations of those who want to attend the next Carles Capdevila’s talks, which are totally recommended, I want to share with you 10 ironic headlines and 5 truths as temples that he said and made me laugh, reflect and think again.

10 ironic headlines listed in order of laughter:

  1. The idea that someday your 7-year-old son will leave home seems INSOPORTABLE to you, but when he’s 18, it seems … interesting, even URGENT!
  2. Cellulose is ruining us. The message to the diaper is, we’re going to throw you out, we hate you. The message to the pad is, come on time every month, wings or no wings, but come.
  3. According to them, teenagers are beings that do“nothing“, in“nowhere” with“nobody“, so why worry? There is NO risk of anything happening to them.
  4. In the nursery and kindergarten the secret of confession is protected better than in church, you never find out who the biter is, which is a blessing when it’s yours!
  5. It is not necessary to tell a story every night making “little voices”. If we do not feel up to it or are tired, we should explain to our children naturally that we are tired or have not had a good day at work.
  6. Dalsy: something so good it can’t be legal.
  7. In P3 they teach the colors so that children can take the subway and change lines at the age of 12.
  8. The best thing about having 4 children is discovering the theory of relativity. Her first daughter, if she dropped her pacifier, they always sterilized it, they had 2 pots of boiling water on the stove all day long. Her fourth child never dropped her pacifier.
  9. The NGO “No child without a bucket and spade” , chaired by a group of mothers from the parks, is now formally constituted.
  10. The nursery school teachers deserve the Cross of Sant Jordi every day, they are saints.
carles capdevila educar con humor - Carles Capdevila, teaches us that educating with humor is possible!

5 truths as temples:

  1. Perfect parents do not exist, they are fake.
  2. Education starts when something happens – the example of the bicycle. When we teach our children to ride a bike, we push them, we take the wheels off without telling them, they fall off and we tell them that it’s okay and to try again and again … because we know that sooner or later all children learn to ride a bike, but until they have fallen several times they don’t understand what balance is. Well, this is exactly what we have to apply to all of our children’s learning. You have to fall to learn and educate, and nothing happens.
  3. Twenty years ago, I decided how I would educate my children before they were born, without knowing them. Then, I realized that, in order to educate our children, it is essential to know them, and know them well, and adapt to how they are. It may be that with one child you never have to help him do his homework, while with another, you always have to be on top of him.
  4. We have to awaken our children when they are young and try to control them when they are teenagers, emphasizing the auxiliary of humility, “try”. If you trust your children, they will respond responsibly.
  5. Educating is mandatory and is a parental mission. If you don’t want to educate, don’t have children. Values are not inculcated or injected, they are only contagious. They are not transmitted with sermons, only by seeing them repeatedly in your environment.

As a “hyper-motivated” mother, as she affectionately called us, I am left with the premise that we must assume that we are not perfect parents and that we will make mistakes many times, but that, precisely, we must let our children fall so that things happen and the adventure of education begins, which has to be calm, quiet and fun, sprinkled with lots of unconditional love, values, norms and criteria.

Once again, moltes gràcies Carles Capdevila!