today my thoughts revert to what has happened within this last week at work. i work in a day care and one of the higher ranking ones at that.
so on this particular day i was working with my three year olds, and i want to specify there age because what this other teacher said has been bothering me since.
I try to love everyone's kids as if they were apart of my own family.
meaning if they get hurt i am going to hold them till they calm down and feel better, if they are crying i will put my arm around them and so on and so forth.
well the other day i did just that to my three year olds, and i worked closely with the harder ones, the ones who had so much energy and all they wanted to do was to run around with there hands in the air and make sure everything was a mess!, which is typical for that age for some children.
i could have taken the roll as a mean teacher and yelled at these kids as they were crying. or put them on break if they didn't stop crying, but i cant do that, sadly enough many of my kids spend more time with me then with there own parents. and most of the other teachers yell at there kids when the kids just miss mommy, or daddy.
and all they need is love. love that i wish i could give them. so this other teacher, and i will not state names here. she felt as if the love and patience i was giving to these kids was "to much" as she was telling other teachers i was giving them "to much attention" or "babying them to much"....
"they are only three" was my only reply to that. at three they are still babies, they still need there mom, and dad, they need that support and confidence. and here i am getting in trouble for loving them, and seeing all there cute little talents, and enjoying there fun age.
yes sure ill send some of my school aged kids on a break when they start acting up. and this is because they know better, they know they are not to pull on Annies hair, or step on Jimbobs shoes, they know not to throw a fit when they are not getting there way. and if they do the best way to help them to to get down to there level, so your not scary and ask them what is going on to make sure its not just them reacting. 9 times out of ten they may even forget what they were mad about.
its time to put love before anger, and patience before quick judgments. listen to what these children have to say, love there tiny hands and feet before long they will not be that small, i choose not to be an angry teacher because nothing good ever comes from yelling, or short fuses. i would hate for my kids to grow up believing that yelling was an okay tactic because they were never taught anything different.
