the faces of children

[bhakti]

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

Comments

[aleyhr]

Am I strange then for feeling like I've always seen it? I find myself getting offended when I see people talk down to kids - don't they know that the kids get it without the "baby" talk? Same with race, although I did grow up in an almost entirely white enviroment. I always saw everyone as people, does that make me weird?

[bhakti]

Oh, I've always hated it when people talked down to kids, too, and always recognized them as complete people. But there's a difference between thinking of kids as people, categorically, and being able to read the faces of individual children with as much finesse and nuance as I would have in reading an adult face. Ditto for racial differences -- they just change the visual cues enough to require some additional learning to decode. I didn't even realize how much data I was missing until suddenly I was catching it.

The faces of children - and other differentiations

[anonymous]

Something similar happened to me after becoming a mother...

And, other experiences took on new meaning...

I remember thinking during a rain that happened when our son Rob was only a couple of months old... "Wow! Rain. This is the first time he's ever seen rain."

It opened my eyes to see things again that I'd taken for granted. My view of the world was altered and became more interesting.. as I was considered how our little mister must be wondering at the world and things he saw and heard. :-)