IVY MI KINDERGARTEN
Education Insight:
Children Are the Best
Teachers for Adults
By Lu Qian, Ivy MI Kindergarten La Botanica Campus (Xi’an)
I
n the best-selling picture book “Don’t Blame Me, It’s
Not My Fault” is a saying, “Every kid is as vivid as a
storybook, while every adult is as dull as a textbook.”
It is true that a child’s day is never as ordinary or
routine as an adult’s. Children expect every day to be
fresh and lively.
Having worked as a kindergarten teacher for many
years, I strive to create a relaxed atmosphere in my
classroom, where children and teachers are equal
and close to one another. In my eyes, children are not
mischievous. On the contrary, they are actually our
“mentors”. How many times have I been impressed
by their readiness to take on challenges and displayed
persistence when facing obstacles? Their innocence and
genuine smiles fill my heart with warm memories.
As an American author once said, “children need love,
especially when they do not deserve it”. Children have
not yet learned to express their needs in the right way.
When they lose their temper or are fussy, we often lack
the patience to explore their inner world, and ignore
the message behind their behaviors.
I believe mistakes are chances to learn. When a child
makes a mistake, people usually over-emphasize on
correcting the mistake, instead of understanding the
child’s intention. When we try to figure out the “truth”
behind the situation, we will see that we have over-
emphasized the mistake, and we will start to better
understand the child. Helping the child is helping us,
too.
I remember an incident from when I taught Pre-K2 class.
I had put some self-made toys in the game area that
intrigued children. They got together and clamored to
play. I chuckled to myself. But later, I heard a bit of a
ruckus.
I saw how he felt, so I took his little hand and said, “I
see. You were negotiating with others, and you did not
mean to break it, right?” He nodded quickly. Then, I
petted him on his head and said, “I’m glad to know
that the first thing you thought of was to negotiate with
others. You did a really good job! If this happens again
that he doesn’t want to share the toy, what will you
do?” He thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll wait
until he’s finished playing, or discuss with him. Um…I
can also go to other areas…”
After this incident, I made a “friendship” table in
my class to let children know what kind of behavior
is friendly and allowed. Before a teaching activity, we
would think of “incidents” and solutions in advance. In
this way, children improved a lot in their social skills.
Mistakes are good learning opportunities. This incident
has taught children how to communicate better with
their peers, and helped me to continuously improve
in my work as well. When children study and try, as
teachers, we should maintain an encouraging and
tolerant attitude and fully accept their efforts. I think
only in this way can there be no “bad” children in the
classroom.
One of the most wonderful things in life is to have a
person who knows all of your faults but still expects and
believes there’s greatness in you. Teachers should be
such people. They meet and know children because of
love. Children may forget what you said, but they will
never forget how you made them feel.
I am passionate about my career and find true meaning
in being a teacher. I am also willing to share the
wonders of life with children and protect the purity in
our hearts.
The truth was some of the children broke the toy when
scrambling for it. Knowing that, I did not hurry to divide
up the responsibility, instead, I had a word with the
little toy breaker and gently asked him what happened.
He told me he had intended to play with the toy and
negotiatated with the others, not ment to break it
others, not meant to break it. Then he burst into tears.
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