１月３１日（水曜日）２０２４
１月最終日の朝、小学４年生の読み聞かせで選んだのは科学絵本「かがくのとも」の「このよでいちばんはやいものは」でした。原本はロバート・フローマンの「Faster and Faster」。
動物たちを比べて速いものをあげていき、海の魚、空飛ぶ鳥へと速いものがわかっていき、人間はそれらより遅いが新幹線やジェット機などの速い道具を作り出したこと。ジェット機よりも「おと」、おとより地球の自転のほうがずっと速いこと、それより人工衛星や宇宙船。更に地球が太陽のまわりを回る方が速いこと。もっと速いのは「ひかり」。子供達は途中の速い順番は知らなかったけれど「ひかり」が一番早いことは何人か知っていました。
さて、「光より速いものがある」と作者は述べます。それは人間の「想像力」。想像力で宇宙の果ての星にも何百年先の未来の国へもいけると。
読み終わって、みんなに目を閉じてもらって、自分が海に浮かんでいると想像してもらう。何の隔たりもない、自由にどこへでもいけるこの自分の想像力の海を大切にしよう、この海で伸び伸び泳ぎ回ろう...と作者は語ります。生徒はもちろん先生もみんな目をつぶっていました。
良い本に出会えました。
On the last day of January, I went to Elementary School for storytelling. The book I chose was "The fastest one in the world" from the science picture book "Friend of Science" and it was originally from "Faster and Faster" by Robert Froman.
There were a series of comparisons to choose the fastest animal among all. Cheetah is the fastest animal on the surface but tuna is faster than cheetah and swallow is faster than tuna. Human beings are much slower than all those animals but people invented faster devices such as jets. Sound is faster than jet but rotation of the earth is much faster than sound. Artificial satellites and spacecraft are faster than the rotation of the earth, and the speed of the earth going around the sun is faster. The fastest one is light. Some kids knew that light is the fastest although they didn't know the ranking in the middle.
Now the author said that there is something faster than light and that is our imagination. We can go to the stars which are at the end of the universe and go to the future world several hundred years ahead.
After finishing the reading, I asked the children to close their eyes. I said "you are floating in the sea and this is an imaginary sea.There is no wall and you can go any place you want." The author says that let's take good care of this imaginary sea and swim freely." I saw that all the kids, even the teacher, closed their eyes.
I am glad I could encounter such a fine book.
