Day of the Odd Socks
On Feb. 7, we celebrate Bare Socks Day, created to promote inclusion and respect for differences
In many schools, children are asked to wear two different socks and various activities are promoted to convey an important value, namely that being different is not a limitation, but an asset.
Origins
In 2013, a support teacher in an elementary school in Friuli, Sabrina Flapp, came up with the idea of getting the message of uniqueness and acceptance of others across in a simple, immediate way. So, inspired by Pippi Longstocking’s whimsical different-colored socks and also by the inventor of smile therapy Patch Adams, she proposed an initiative that soon spread everywhere.
First, it was followed by some volunteers from the VipFriulClaun Odv Association who decided to wear the odd socks in the wards of the hospitals where they served.
Then, thanks to social media, this Day (which falls on the first Friday in February) became national.
The significance
In a society where there is often a tendency to marginalize those who are different, it is more necessary than ever to educate the youngest children to recognize in each one a special and irreplaceable being and not to be afraid of those who have characteristics and histories that are not the same as their own.
For centuries, categories, labels have caged us into a world where there are blacks, the disabled, the poor, etc., etc., but it is important to remember that we are all part of one family and that everyone’s diversity can offer and bring something new, another point of view, a more colorful world.
In conclusion
There are many proposals being made on this Day in kindergartens and schools: games, workshops, songs, all strictly with mismatched socks on our feet.
For its part, spazio + spadoni, reiterating the concept that works of mercy are also an expression of these values, proposes Mimmo Mòllica’s Philastrocca.
Will it be the wrong son,
the mismatched sock?
The brother cannot be found,
which of the two is more bratty?
But we are not wrong,
we are just “mismatched.”
which does not mean lost,
but only “different.”
And after all, we are brothers,
we are not necessarily twins,
there is not one who is more astute,
we are not made for each other,
or as someone says
we are not made for each other.
Even Titius with Caius
formed a “pair.”
and they never lost each other,
they only remained different.