SEPTEMBER 7
Dear Diary,
I heard a child crying in the
hall this afternoon, and watched as Jacquie, the threes teacher (who should be
teaching 5th grade in a military school), scolded Aaron for talking. Really?
Talking? This little sweetheart of a boy is so shy, and he cries on a
dime. Finally he gets a little courage to speak, and because “we
don’t talk as we walk down the hall”, he gets in trouble. What is wrong with this picture? When I asked Aaron what happened, Jacquie
spoke up, and started to tell me how “we are having a little problem keeping
our bubbles in our mouth.”
I asked her co-teacher Jennifer
to take the children back to their class and walked with Jacquie to my office
to discuss this. There are just some
things I won’t stand for and stopping children from talking when there is no
reason is one of them. I remember another
little guy crying during circle time in her class last week, too.
Jacquie told me that the children
here needed this kind of discipline (and the parents liked it, too), because
she needed to get them ready for big school. Apparently this community has
very high standards for their kindergarteners, and she is just trying to get
them ready. I chose not to explain that
this was inappropriate for kindergarteners, too. She is really just misinformed and needs some
guidance. I know I can help her get
there, I just gotta figure out how. I
just told her that we were a place where children were able to be themselves,
and if she felt like the talking was getting out of control she could suggest
whispering. I reminded her that social
skills are formed during these years, and children need the opportunity to
freely communicate with one another in order to practice these skills.
Can’t learn to walk if you’re strapped in a
stroller.
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