News Article & Education: Johnny Depp joins primary school's pirate mutiny

Have you ever thought about asking your children write to a movie star? I doubt it. Because you know that they will never get reply from them, and then your children would feel upset about it. But why not? At the end of the day, there are certain advantages to this, one is to give your children a chance to learn through doing tasks that seem almost impossible, so that they will not be restricted by that "won't get good result, so don't do" mindset, and another one is to let them know "what they give, is often not what you get; yet they should still try" just because it is a valuable experience.

A primary school girl in Greenwich, London, did something just like that, and guess what she got in return?

Johnny Depp joins primary school's pirate mutiny When you're planning to lead a mutiny against your teachers, who better to enlist than Hollywood's most famous pirate? By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor Published: 7:30AM BST 08 Oct 2010 Image from http://i.telegraph.co.uk Johnny Depp is filming the latest Pirates of the Caribbean instalment at the nearby Old Royal Naval College Photo: DARRYL GREEN Nine-year-old Beatrice Delap did just that by writing to Captain Jack Sparrow, star of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. "We are a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we're a right handful but we're having trouble mutinying against the teachers. We'd love it if you could come and help," she wrote. To the astonishment of staff at Meridian primary school in Greenwich, south-east London, Captain Jack arrived in the form of Johnny Depp, the actor who plays him. Depp is filming the latest Pirates of the Caribbean instalment at the nearby Old Royal Naval College. Beatrice said: "I had the idea to write the letter last week after me and a friend went to see the film set. Yesterday the school called us in for a special assembly at the end of the day. "Then Johnny Depp walked in dressed as Captain Jack. There were gasps and screams. He pulled the letter out of his pocket and said he was going to frame it. Then he called me down and gave me a hug. "He said the pirates were going to take over the school and only eat candy and our teeth would turn black and fall out. But he said we shouldn't mutiny against the teachers because there were some police outside and we might get into trouble. It was the most exciting school day ever." Acting head teacher Jo Graham said: "It was a very memorable day."

Having a actor as kind as Johnny Depp is definitely great! Isn't it? He is not only a great actor, but also an educator who cares about the development of the younger generations.

Having something to dream about is a great thing nowadays. In the past, children dreamed about their future naturally, some dreamed about becoming a policeman, some dreamed about becoming a nurse, and so they studied hard, worked hard; however, time has changed and Generation Y are so much different. They have no dreams at all, no focus in life, no reason to study, no need to obey. They care none about others, no need to give love to others because they get "money-equivalence" from parents, no need to give respects to anyone because they think they are bosses. They don't care about the future because they take everything for granted, not knowing the difficult life that they will be facing when they grow up. They have no failure because they don't have expectation. And so they continue to sink ...

Want to pull them out? Once they are teenagers, it will be too late and too hard. Dreamings should start early, and children should be guided by their parents in the process of dreaming-trying-failing-rethinking-retrying-refailing-understanding-redreaming.

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Keep your heart open to dreams. For as long as there's a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living. -- Anonymous

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Vocabulary:
mutiny -- (vb)[I] (n)[C or U] when a group of people, especially soldiers or sailors, refuse to obey orders and/or attempt to take control from people in authority
astonishment -- (n)[U] very great surprise
gasp -- (vb)[I] to take a short quick breath through the mouth, especially because of surprise, pain or shock
frame -- (vb) [T] to fix a border around a picture etc. and often glass in front of it






Resources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8049146/Johnny-Depp-joins-primary-schools-pirate-mutiny.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/mutiny_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/astonishment
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/gasp_1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/frame_7