the faces of children

Jun 12, 2007 20:44

One of the most striking things about my first year as a Montessori teacher is how it has changed the way I see children. Literally: they look different now ( Read more... )

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darkgryphn June 13 2007, 03:08:42 UTC
I think that this is amazing, and think that with the constant moving around of substituting from grade to grade you totally cannot gain this kind of perception.

Oh, and as someone who went to a ridiculously diverse school I find the idea of members of a race "all looking the same" absurd, and never understood it. But then, I didnt really get the race thing until I was older. In first grade my grandmother asked if I had a boyfriend. Apparently I said yes, and she asked if he was black or white. I responded that I wanst sure I would have to check at school the next day.

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syncretistfool June 13 2007, 03:43:06 UTC
Parenting is doing something similar for me. I've found myself thinking that my one-year-old is so different, so much deeper, so much more a PERSON than the other babies I had known before... and then realized it's not that she's different, it's that she has taught me to see her with that much depth. Now when I interact with other babies and toddlers I see them with that kind of detail too. It's awesome. They are such cool people!!
Bigger kids, though, are still a relative enigma to me. I can only guess and hope that my senses will be similarly opened to the mysteries of each age as my kid approaches it.

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mamasee June 13 2007, 14:30:11 UTC
So tell me, do you understand toddler-to-preschooler speak better now? :) I know most preschoolers are pretty understandable, but not all of them (read: my older child) are.

I understand the familiarity part... the children in the classrooms I've subbed in 2+ times are more people-with-personality than those I've only subbed in once, or a couple of times separated by 4+ months. But also, I see them as people pretty quickly, probably because I have young 2 children.

Aside: I know you don't teach toddlers, but did you largely understand my younger child's speech when we visited you? (This question comes from our parent-teacher conference yesterday, and observing him and other toddlers.)

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bhakti June 20 2007, 22:18:50 UTC
"So tell me, do you understand toddler-to-preschooler speak better now?"

In general, yes. More on the preschooler end, though, consistent with the age group I work with. But with the more difficult-to-understand kids, I've found that I have to learn them individually -- how they tend to encode their thoughts, and how they slur or change particular phonemes.

"Aside: I know you don't teach toddlers, but did you largely understand my younger child's speech when we visited you?"

I wish I could say yes, but no. There were exceptions, but I was mostly going by gestures and facial expressions when it came to him; I don't know his speech patterns well enough to make sense of his words.

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kombu June 13 2007, 15:56:32 UTC
Until your 2nd-to-last paragraph, I wasn't sure if I was going to mention this, but it is indeed similar to my experience with race. As we contemplated adopting black children, I started SEEING the black people around me far more. As we raised a black foster child for a year, I began seeing the people in the particular poor black neighborhood her parents lived in as complex humans with stories (I work in the same neighbborhood, but this only happened as I started seeing women who reminded me of her mother or old men in her father's peer group, or little kids riding in strollers down her street as she does).

I had black people in my life as a child more than most middle classs whites do, but starting in high school my group of friends stareted getting whiter and that has continued. I had to have reason to start actively noticing the black people around me in order to realize that I'd stopped seeing them in a 3-D sort of way at some point.

Interesting that it relates to your experience with children.

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pennhothwen June 13 2007, 20:29:42 UTC
Wow.

I've been in several life situations where I too have been afforded the opportunity for similar realizations. Teaching was one; the time I spent immersed in my Korean (ex-)fiance's culture and family was another.

I find it has changed not only how I perceive others, but how I perceive myself in terms of aging and fundamental humanity.

I still miss you, by the way. call when you're less busy?

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