Messy is beautiful

April, glorious and muddy, was made for children. Or have we forgotten?

Prof. Ziya Selçuk, formerly of the Ministry of Education here, at the closing ceremony of a seminar on multiple intelligences spoke openly about myths that have guided the design of education and proposed a better way. He debunked ideas about quiet, orderly, unison lessons, where everyone sits straight and is taught the same thing at the same time. Orderly isn't always good.

Turks are immaculate, keep spotless homes, and practice fastidious personal hygiene. While I appreciate and admire that, I also remember fondly those Aprils on the Michigan farm where I grew up, digging mud puddle canals and building mud dams, wrestling on the new grass with the dogs, collecting worms and tadpoles. Having a grand old time while my brain quietly created an understanding of life.

Schools --and Turkish moms-- are in a constant battle against chaos, crooked lines, and grass stains. Learning, however, loves a mess. That's why some of my favorite television commercials here are by a laundry detergent company that celebrates mess, mud, and childhood with the motto, "getting dirty is beautiful."  Probably the first time those words have co-occurred in Turkish.

So here's one of those Omo commercials. Let's pray that YouTube stays online long enough for you to enjoy it! I've also done a rough translation of the voice over.

You can't just watch life from a window.
If you don't start out on the road, you'll never arrive.
You can't always sit on the sidelines.
If you don't get out on the field, you'll never hit a goal.
You'll never swim if you don't get wet.
You'll never rise high if you never climb.
If you never live, you'll never learn.
The stains and smudges of the children's world
are the badges of what they have learned and achieved.
Omo - getting dirty is beautiful.

Radikal'in haberi buraya, Omo'nun reklamların hakkında güzel bir yorum için buraya tıklayın.

Comments

[Nancy Riffer]

This is a fabulous ad. Unlike what we see in the United States, too. I am struck by how happy and carefree the children seem. Our commercials for detergent seem to favor competition, not cooperation.

I also grew up in Michigan and have been writing this spring about tadpoles I caught in a tiny spring pond that dried up by the end of summer.

I have discovered how much playing outdoors without close supervision is a critical component of my being a life long learner. In the US, the fear parents have of strangers and the push to have children busy, productive every minute seems to have taken free-play in nature away from most children. This kind of activity is critical to balance learning and international interactions available through the internet.

Hurray for getting our feet wet.

[Ardent]

I loved the OMO add. You don't get ads like this in Australia. Laundry powder ads in OZ show the housewife in the laundry smelling the freshness and admiring the brightness of the washed clothes.

This Ad is very progressive and ingenious.