The Tour of the “Guguta” Municipal Puppet Theater in Causeni: Over 160 Children Are Warned to Surf the Internet with Caution Not to Become Victims of the Online Environment
60 pupils from Grigorievca Village Gymnasium, Causeni District, and over 100 children from Kindergarten No 2 “Povestea” from Causeni Town learned many useful things about the Internet while watching the PikPok.online@guguta show from the repertoire of the “Guguta” Municipal Puppet Theater. On October 4, the theater team visited the children from the two localities, warning them that the risks they can face on social networks are real, and anyone can become a victim of the online environment.
“The PikPok.online@guguta show is an educational fairytale about correct behavior and responsibility, about good manners and common sense, about the rules to follow while chatting with strangers online, about protecting yourself and your relatives from certain risks, treating your real friends properly, and avoiding fake friends who can mislead you,” Victoria Tataru, the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) program coordinator, said in her welcome speech.
The children watched the theatrical show with great interest. As we found out later, it was the first time in the history of the gymnasium that a puppet theater arrived in the locality, and also the first time that the children met with actors and story protagonists (actually, most of the kids had never visited a theater before). “It has been taking place in our gymnasium for the first time today,” several 3rd and 4th grade pupils said when they surrounded us to share their impressions.
“I’ve liked everything – the way the puppet theater actors danced, the way they sang, and the way they acted. At first, the wolf was evil, but he learned some useful things in the end. This show teaches us to be better, to act wise, and to value our true friends instead of blindly believing everything we see or read online. Some things can be fake or untrue,” Adrian Luchianciuc, one of the pupils, told us.
“I also like the way the wolf changed his behavior. At first, he was telling lies just to become famous and popular. When he realized he was wrong, he apologized. And he also gave a flower as a sign of attention. It’s a good thing to do, and we can follow his example. I often use TikTok. Today’s play was a lesson to me: I should be more careful about what I watch there, it might not be true, Alexandra Sclerenco, his colleague, added.
“This show teaches us that deceiving is a bad thing to do, and if you lied to someone, you should definitely apologize. Online, not all things are true. We have to learn to distinguish the good things from the bad ones. I don’t think I could figure it out alone,” Ana Catanoi, another pupil, says.
“The kids were very receptive, active, and stayed in a good mood throughout the performance. For them, it was a real celebration. The gymnasium has been existing for 45 years, and it’s is the first time a real theater visits our village. Actually, we don’t have a possibility to organize trips to Chisinau to visit the theaters there, but such cultural activities are absolutely necessary,” Maria Ceban, primary school teacher, remarks.
At the end, the children were eager to take some photos with the actors and the puppets, to keep the memory of that performance for as long as possible.
In the afternoon, the “Guguta” Municipal Puppet Theater actors played the same performance at the Romanian-Russian kindergarten No 2 “Povestea” in Causeni Town. Unlike in Grigorievca, the local children are luckier: they are often visited by various theater groups or go to the theater whenever they wish if there is a show they like in the repertoire.
“We, the kindergarten teachers, have become accustomed to instilling art and culture in children. Through music, poetry, or stories, kids learn to see and to appreciate beauty; they develop such skills and traits as acting independently, not fearing to express their ideas, to say their opinions, to be heard, and also to make their own decisions,” Rodica Cucta, the methodologist, told us. She also added that they appreciated the repertoire of the “Guguta” Theater and were very happy to meet such guests as the puppet theater actors.
“We have a digital education hour at our kindergarten, and during it, we will discuss and analyze the show we have watched together with the kids”, Eugenia Ceban, kindergarten teacher, says. She adds that the topic of the play is very up-to-date and is a suitable educational material, especially for 6-7 year old kids. “Do we teach children what a computer is? What a phone is? How it should be used? How much time should we spend using them? We do that at our kindergarten, parents do that at home, and I hope in this way children will realize that gadgets connected to the Internet are not toys. As far as we can see, children who have early access to these devices have poor vocabulary and articulation, they are nervous and easily irritable. In our kindergarten, we pay particular attention to speech development and development through games and interactive offline activities, not the virtual ones”, the kindergarten teacher added.
PikPok.online@guguta is an adaptation of the educational fairytale titled “A Click of Fangs or the Manipulative Wolf” written by media researcher Solvita Denisa Liepniece from Latvia. The show lasts for 45 minutes and is included in the repertoire of the “Guguta” Theater both in Russian and Romanian. In partnership with the Independent Journalism Center, the “Guguta” Theater launched the Romanian version of the PikPok.online@guguta show in November 2022, and the Russian one in February 2023.
The show is an educational and entertaining story intended for kindergarten children and primary school pupils. The play helps the little ones comprehend how the online environment functions and encourages them to analyze what they see or hear, especially on social media.
The PikPok.online@guguta show tour is organized within the framework of the project “Media Education and Literacy and Optimisation of Newsrooms” (MELON). This project is financially supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Moldova.
