How do your children act in school? Do they demonstrate the behavior in school that they learn at home? Or is it the other way around?
It amazes me how some of the youngest children acted in my former full-day pre-kindergarten classroom at Charles Carroll, Barrister Elementary School in Pigtown.
Maybe I am naïve. I came to teaching late in life after working in business and raising a family. But I teach 4-year-olds, mere babies.
I know bad behavior could not have been learned in my classroom. Children learn math, phonics, pre-reading skills, social studies, the alphabet, social skills, music, art, drama and so forth ? all respectable and acceptable academic programs.
One day one child had to be put in time-out, a normal consequence for poor behavior at this age level. As I walked away from the boy, the facial expressions of the other students suggested to me that I should turn around and look at him.
This young child gestured to me with his middle finger. I was flabbergasted! I said to him, “I don?t think so.” I was totally dumbstruck. Now, which one of you parents taught him this? Is this your child?
Perhaps his siblings taught him or the other children on the street. But this child is someone?s son. “Fess up.”
Another day, a very precocious 4-year-old boy was playing on the playground during recess. He picked a stick from the ground, took a couple pretend puffs and said, “I?ve got some weed.”
Excuse me. Once again, I did not teach him this. Is this your child?
Not surprisingly, some of his little buddies also began to pretend to smoke later in the week. Remember the candy cigarettes some of us had as children? This takes that idea to a whole new level. Education is often acquired when one does not want it to be.
In defense of our little cherubs, I have one more story. This one is about a parent who misbehaved during my first teaching year.
It was a normal, as much as can be expected, afternoon teaching young children, when a mother burst into my room and announced in a very loud voice (frightening in itself) “Erin, get your f***ing coat, we are getting out of this f***ing place.”
I kid you not. She was outraged because the cafeteria personnel had refused to give her other child a second helping of chicken nuggets at lunch. Is this your parent?
As the Alice Cooper song goes: “School?s Out For Summer!” You will find me recuperating and regenerating on the beach in Ocean City, eating french fries and hiding behind sunglasses so no one recognizes me.
I hope students and parents rest up, relax and read, too. But I also hope that children ? and parents ? return to school in the fall ready to adjust to the daily classroom structure and routine.
Linda Smith is the mother of two children, one of whom plans to be a teacher. After taking a year off from teaching last year, she will return to the classroom again as a pre-kindergarten teacher in August. She can be reached at [email protected].
