I know Jesus was admired as a great teacher, but I wonder if
he ever taught preschool. That’s where his “love your neighbor as yourself” and
“turn the other cheek” would be put to the test. I wish I could be a fly on the
wall when he told little Matthew:
“Matthew, you shouldn’t be playing with that in your hand
during music class. Bring it to me, please.”
Pause.
“Matthew, please bring that over to me.”
No response.
“Matthew, I’ve asked you two times now. I want you bring
that to me. Right now.”
Silence.
“Mateo, ven aqui! No, you don’t speak Spanish? I was just
wondering, since I’ve asked you three
times in your mother tongue of English. Now once more, bring that to me.”
“Matthew?”
“Yoo hoo! I’m over here!”
Matthew!!!!!!!
You get the idea. Later in the class Matthew twirled around
on his little carpet square while others were executing the intricate dance
figures. Then he got on someone else’s carpet square who pushed him off and
Matthew pushed back and I intervened and separated them and then Matthew pushed
again and I believe that it was at this moment that I became a lapsed Christian
and felt my blood pressure rise as I firmly escorted Matthew out the door.
In my workshops, I always tell teachers that “behavior is
the language of children” and our job is to translate. The behavior was clearly
saying either “I can’t do what you’re asking” or “ I could do it but I don’t
want to” or “It’s much more fun to twirl around by myself and bump into people”
or “I am an alien from another planet” or “I’m only five years old! Cut me some
slack! I have no idea what’s going on inside my little body and mind!” But
indeed it is my job to:
1)
Stop the behavior so the class can proceed harmoniously and
the other children can enjoy the experience.
2)
Give clear consequences as to what’s acceptable or not.
3)
Talk it over with the child and another teacher or
administrator.
4)
Try to sincerely figure out what’s going on to help that child
to participate successfully.
5)
Love that child. But love comes best from understanding and
understanding is hard work. Whether a kid is five or fifty-five.
All this is so easy to say and so hard to do. I suspect
Jesus would have been a good preschool teacher, but I also bet he would have
gotten frustrated and upset a few times. It makes me feel better to think that. On to tomorrow’s
class.
Hey Doug, this is brilliant advice for all teachers who have undoubtedly experienced this in the first few weeks of classes (or at any time of their teaching career, for that matter.) It's a great reminder that we are not perfect, and neither are our students or our teaching methods. But, even with great teachers in seemingly perfect teaching conditions, there are students who are just not quite ready for the task at hand... and that doesn't mean that we are bad teachers or that the child is a bad student. We all have "bad days" as teachers, and maybe that child was also having one of those proverbial bad days. Thanks for sharing this story, Doug, as so many of us can relate to this experience as we get to know our students in these first few weeks of a new school year! Thanks, too, for the reminder to love children (and ourselves!!) for who they are and for where they are developmentally. We can't expect them to ripen too quickly or demand that they will ripen exactly when we want them to. (borrowing from your previous post about avocados! :-) They'll do that when the time is just right... for them. Happy Teaching! Eric
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