Saturday 27 August 2016

Your reputation matters

A professional is a person who understands that learning your craft is an ongoing process and that there will always be more to learn. 

I was home alone the other night and leafing through Mum's movie collection. I ended up watching 'Mona Lisa Smile', which strangely mirrored just what I had been feeling and thinking about. A teacher comes to a new school hoping to make a difference. She does with the students, but comes up against opposition all the way by the influential families who control the college curriculum from behind the scenes. This is frustrating and tiring, but she continues to do what she believes is right. In the end she moves on, but with her ideals intact.  

I didn't come into this profession by an organized plan. I don't live life that way, which is why I'm constantly surprised by the way things turn out. Having always believed that my time as a teacher was temporary, it never occurred to me to be concerned about the legacy that my teaching practice was leaving behind me. Hindsight has shown me that temporary can be a lot longer than you think, and I don't regret that. I'm sure that was the direction my life was supposed to take up until now. There have been very few easy moments, but that's the nature of the game.

In 2009 the Early Years Learning Framework left lovely spaces free for innovation. They said "We're not done yet. You the educators will develop the rest of this document as you work with it, come to understand and share its language, talk to each other, test it out". That's what I was told in early 2010. A curriculum document is a political document, and politics blows around like the wind, influencing schools and parents, influenced mainly by economic priorities.

Remember, we're helping to prepare children for a world that doesn't yet exist. Technology and the political climate will probably be unrecognizable from how they are now. Children will need skills that are transferable, as job roles will be transient and evolving. Knowledge is not enough. They will need to be able to apply it in multiple contexts. This will be impossible for them if they believe that there is one right answer, if they are too unsettled by change, if they lose their confidence by not being allowed to explore and express themselves, and if they believe that they don't know how to think and create.

Families will come and go, opinions will vary, economic factors will influence educational settings. Your professional reputation will follow you wherever you go. It will live on in the lives of the children that you teach. People will trust and respect you if you are true to what you believe is right, and can back it up. If you bow to pressure to lower your standards to please the occasional parent, you will probably end up disappointing others, and yourself. That practice will become part of your professional legacy.

There is nothing like education, with its propensity to move with trends and times. Don't ever expect to feel comfortable, or completely sure of what you're doing. I'm too hard on myself. We should try not to be. Remember, its the nature of the game. A job that makes a difference. The children of the future need us to believe in ourselves, so that they can learn to. They matter, and what they will grow up to do matters. 

Saturday 6 August 2016

Shyness

Why must we try to change children's personalities?

Have you ever heard people say that they must encourage 'push' children to talk, project their voices, be more social? I'm talking about little ones, younger than five. I heard it a couple of times the other day and it just didn't sit well with me. This is not one of my theories. This is personal.

I was that child. That child hated to be pushed. That child had a will of her own. She knew what she needed. Dismissing what she needed and drawing attention to her so called shortcomings made her feel misunderstood, undervalued and anxious. Social anxiety is something that you grow to overcome, in your own time, by your own will.

That child is observing. She is collecting information about people so that she can learn how to interact with them. As a result she may grow up with a deep understanding and appreciation of people. She may become a great listener and a wonderful friend.

I wasn't pushed but I did suffer as a child from being constantly labelled. I was shy. By the time I was a teenager I became 'quiet'. Until I was about seventeen that was pretty much the sum of my identity outside the family. I took this identity on and felt that I had the most boring personality in the world.

It's been a long journey since then. That child is still there. I'm particularly aware of her at the moment having just started a new job. Now I acknowledge her, breathe, and move on. No amount of pushing will teach a child to navigate life. It comes from inside.

I am constantly exceeding my own expectations. I find it amusing and surprising that I often find myself doing things that many extroverts would find challenging. I have sung before hundreds of people and spoken to groups of twenty-five parents. I acted in a play a few years ago.

The other day I turned up at a childcare centre unannounced and requested to speak to the owner. We sat down and had a long discussion, where I explained to him that I couldn't accept a permanent job there as I felt that the education system that they had chosen was so far removed from what I believe is best for children's learning. I alerted him to the poor practices that were happening there and implied that it was impossible that those in charge could not know what was going on. I walked out of there feeling quite weird, thinking "who are you and where did you come from?"

Leave these children alone. Let them create their own identities rather than imposing identities on them. Let them imagine all the possibilities for their lives and watch them exceed their own expectations. Never underestimate children's capabilities. Encourage their strengths instead. They will show you who they are.

(The hidden gifts of the introverted child, Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D., 2005)






Experience is the best teacher

Are we allowing children to experience life?

We had a couple of magical moments this week. The teacher was cutting some cellophane into strips for an activity when the cellophane caught the light and made a disco on the ceiling. The children were captivated and started to smile and dance. Some wanted to know how it happened. Witnessing these beautiful, natural moments of curiosity and delight is to me one of the best things about working with young children.

The next day we saw a bee on the slide. I allowed the children to look at it, but reminded them several times not to go too close. Their natural curiosity was too strong, however. One boy insisted that it was a hornet, not a bee. Another said he had never seen a bee and bent towards it to have a closer look. Somebody disturbed the bee and it flew off leaving the children shrieking with excitement.

A little girl grinned at me and said, several times, "it nearly stung us". The fact that the bee could have stung them but didn't seemed to be the greatest delight. The element of risk, of danger, of being more powerful than the danger, that was the joy that I saw in their eyes. It was a new observation for me.

Maybe experience is the best teacher. Formal learning has to link to reality, otherwise where is the meaning in it? Adults probably don't intend to curb children's opportunities to experience these spontaneous moments. We just don't notice them. The only way is to slow down and to start to look for them. We need to look through children's eyes if we want to see them.

They are there in the lights and the shadows, in the sound of the rain, in the ground where the insects live, and in the gardens where fairies hide. It's that feeling of flour on your hands and wind in your hair. It's seeing a rainbow, chasing bubbles, crouching in the dark and climbing the tallest tree.

To have the chance to experience the reality of what is there and to imagine what could be there, to enjoy the thrill of risk and the triumph over danger, to share these experiences with children and see them come alive through being permitted access to them, and to be paid to do this - what a privilege!