Beginning Reponsibility: Other People's Things (1957)

[Music] [Applause] our class is drawing pictures about ways to take care of other people's things would you like to know why well it started one day when we found our playground swings broken no one could play on them how could the swings have been broken so badly the only way we could think of was this someone must have been angry and deliberately broken the swings broken something that belongs to the whole school the marking on the wall of our school was almost as bad some people seem to think it was funny to mark up the walls and make them ugly they forgot how much work it would be to clean the walls so we have talked in our class about taking care of things that don't belong to us this is one of the paintings made to show our ideas about taking care of other people's things Mary Jane painted it of course everyone in our class is painting and drawing pictures but Mary Jane has worked especially hard so let's find out what her pictures say the first picture shows a boy giving something to a man do you see well this is a story Mary Jane means to tell it begins as Kenneth finds a billfold what should he do he looks inside to find out whose it is it's Mr mcferson Kenneth knows who it belongs to so what should he do with it do you agree with Kenneth that finders should not be Keepers returning other people's things is important don't you think see how glad it makes Mr mcferson that Kenneth returned the billfold have you ever found something and returned it to its owner don't you think returning things you find is an important part of taking care of things that belong to others that's what Mary Jane means in her first picture her second picture shows a boy on a bus and this is what Mary Jane means to tell often when we ride on a bus even our school bus we are careless we all like to ride in a good safe clean bus but sometimes some of us forget Joe is pushing his foot against the seat in front of him and marking it up he isn't paying any attention he's thinking about what he and his friend are talking about he doesn't even see that he has pushed the seat loose see how much damage carelessness can do now Joe sees what has happened and he's going to try to fix it there and luckily Joe has an extra handkerchief he can use to clean the back of the seat doesn't that look better don't you think Joe knows it's better to be careful than careless about things that don't belong to us yes it's much better to be careful that's the story Mary Jane tells in her picture the third picture shows a girl getting a book from her teacher it's really the story of something that happened in our class I had given a book to Irene when she opened it she found oh look torn Pages folded Pages marked Pages why the book was ruined Irene brought it right back to me as she should I was surprised when I saw it of course the child who did it would have to give our class a new book but wasn't it too bad the book wasn't cared for Irene was glad to get a book that had been cared for for she likes to take care of things that belong to the class and the school and learning to take care of books that don't belong to us is important to everyone don't you think so that's what Mary Jane's third drawing tells the last picture is about Mary Jane herself it shows her borrowing paints from her neighbor Richard these are special paints that belong to Richard he let Mary Jane use them on her special painting and she takes good care of them she's careful not to spill them she puts the covers on tightly so the paints won't dry out she keeps the brushes and the paints clean she puts things back neatly and she returns them as soon as possible that's the way to take care of things that belong to others isn't it I was so pleased with Mary Jane's painting that I ask her to let me show it to the class after all her painting shows important things that will make ours a better school all of us must learn to take care of things that don't belong to Us return things and be careful of things we use yes Mary Jan's is a special picture she'll certainly want to take it home and show it to her parents after school Mary Jane can't help noticing how clean the walles are when everyone takes care of things we do have a better school don't we Mary Jane wants to get home quickly to show her painting to her mother uh-oh be careful of your painting Mary Jane [Music] uhoh Mary Jane is having trouble with the wind and look her painting it's gone yes it's easy for any of us to forget and become careless where could the painting have gone too bad a few minutes later Richard is coming along the same walk what what's that it's Mary Jane's painting can Richard get it without damaging anything well if he's careful there now what would Mary Jane's painting be doing here what should Richard do about it Mary Jane is home now and wishing she'd been more careful then Mary [Music] Jane it's lucky for Mary Jane that Richard remembered about taking care of other people's things it isn't easy to learn to be careful but both Richard and Mary Jane will try hard to learn more and more about taking care of things will you do you remember what the pictures [Music] tell do you remember how important it is to return things you [Music] find do you remember how easy it is to damage things just by being careless and sometimes you can fix things taking care of books is important anyone who damages a book should have to replace it don't you think so if we use something that belongs to someone else don't you think we should keep it clean and neat and return it just as soon as we [Music] can these lessons take practice but when we do practice them we are happier others are happier too when we take care of other people's things