make ourselves brave like the big gorillas!’
I led Toto out of the classroom and started showing Toto the tapping on the chest.‘ This is how the gorillas do, isn’ t it?’ I said,‘ Just do like me now.’
He nodded and started to imitate me. After tapping for a while I asked him:‘ How do you feel?’ He smiled and said‘ I’ m okay now.’
We went back to the classroom. When entering through the door, Toto
let go of my hand and walked without hesitation through the crowd, up to the teacher. She asked him something in French, which is the language of the learned people in our country, but Toto answered in Swahili:‘ Please Madame, could you say the questions to me in Swahili, French is difficult.‘
The teacher looked surprised at Toto. Then she bent forward and lifted him up from the floor and said:‘ You are a brave boy. Of course we can talk in Swahili.’
On a Chess Tournament for Kids Another example of doing TTT with children comes from Sweden: Ulf:
When my daughter was ten years old, her whole class participated in a yearly chess tournament for kids. They participate as a class, counting points from every individual game. This means that every child is partly responsible for the outcome of the class in each game. Imagine the pressure.
One boy got so nervous that he threw up. He cried and wanted to go home. This situation holds a lot of pressure for a kid this age – the class effort de- pended on him playing.
My wife, Melodie, tapped him as he was standing and crying, using a napkin to mop up the vomit. After two rounds she looked him in the eyes and asked“ Can you give it a try?”
He turned around with a weak smile, nodded, played – and won. After