104: The Warriors of Kyoshi

Monk Gyatso (dad):  This chapter has a lesson on sexism; which is to make assumptions about someone based on whether a person is a boy or a girl.  As we grow up we are told about all the differences between boys and girls, and some of these might ring true, but some are not of all people.  Any person can amount to any thing, whether that is warrior, best student, or great friend.  Sokka was a typical teenage boy, who has these ideas a bit mixed up and learns something here.  We know that our spirits are either male or female, and we know that we have different duties placed upon us in life, but our choices determine what we can do and what we are.

The second lesson in this chapter is about taking greater responsibility for our actions.  Aang wants to play and have fun, and although life is full of both work and play, we need to take our duties and responsibilities seriously.  
Here Aang is distracted by his fame and wants to relax and play, not face the responsibility that he faces in the world.  At the end, he realizes that the village will be destroyed by fire, and some of that is due to his decision to hang around instead of get on with his journey to learn waterbending.  
He helps contain the fire as much as he can, but we see here the rule of “ought.”  If Aang were focused on getting to the North Pole as he ‘ought’ to have been, Zuko wouldn’t have caught up with him in Kyoshi, and the village not burned in the first place.  It is amazing how much trouble can snowball when we don’t do what we ought to be doing.

Now, these are NOT lesson plans, and are not fully developed; but they are the beginning of discussions we are having in our home and our invitation for you to join in and see lessons you glean from the shows.  So Please Comment!!