It was an interesting day at school. We stayed in most of the day because it was so horribly hot and our teachers felt it was best to make the day as easy as we could because tomorrow will be a long one.We want to thank Miss Susie for holding down the fort with Edith this morning while Miss Kelly and I went to the new United Way Coalition meeting concerning childcare in Evansville this morning. It was surprising to note how many organizations touch the world of children and how many people showed up this morning interested and concerned with childcare today.
Miss Kelly and I were the only teachers there. I've always thought there has always been a division between the powers that run childcare locally and those of us who work in it. It's like the aristocrats and the serfs. I have always wondered about the division.
The kinds of things these people want to implement in the next twenty years are: a concentration on nutrition and health, a foreign language, a consistency in care, better teachers, better programs, better communication, and a lot of childcare services. Sound familiar?
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Today was our marker day for the trip tomorrow. Anyone going home today with a third green face took a letter home saying they could not come tomorrow.
Every year we fold on behaviors and end up taking some desperately ill behaved children just because we care. This year we are caring for those who have earned a really nice trip without the trailer of disruptive, disobedient children on the bus. Four children did not make the trip.
As I told one parent, this is not a trip we can easily turn around. If we were going an hour up the road, we could return if we had to, but not three hours away. Besides, I told her, some children earned this trip and your child didn't. Every child was told that his behavior would determine his going, and he had to make the choice. We spend most of our day guiding children away from poor choices, and when a child knows better than all the good will in the world, he is going to take a big fall.
A parent of one poorly behaved child told me she had to work. The focus of the Garden School is on the child, not the parent. When parents go to work, they can know for sure our first thought is the child in our care. Formation of the child is our first priority. Rewarding terrible behavior is not formative; it's destructive.
Tomorrow will be HOT. Please dress briefly. If there is a better than 60% chance of rain, we may cancel because of the possibility of dramatic storm and the danger of traveling in such a situation. It's 50% right now. If we do cancel, we'll do something else locally - something different and fun.
5 comments:
"A parent of one poorly behaved child told me she had to work. The focus of the Garden School is on the child, not the parent."
Please remember that there would be no need for GS or any other daycares if there weren't working parents. Perhaps you could arrange to leave someone at GS on field trip days to watch the children who are poorly behaved. This would also solve the dilemma of what to do for the parents who don't feel comfortable sending their child on a 7 hour bus trip.
I agree that it puts parents in a bind when their childrens caregiver cannot provide care. That's why I always put my child in a center & not a home. I cannot just "call in" to work. I am an attorney & I have things that I must be present for. When I was a child, I misbehaved & wasn't allowed to go to the Philharmonic with my class. I stayed behind & helped the Librarian file. That was much more effective than having me stay home & having my mom miss a day of work. I didn't like her working anyway. That would have felt like a reward!
I think the choice of having someone stay at the school with ill behaved children is wonderful. We wanted to give our son an early start on education and have chosen the Garden School as the place to do that. He loves it there and will enter school with more knowledge than many of his classmates.
So one of the teachers who has worked hard all summer has to give up the best trip of the year to stay behind with 4 poorly behaved children. She has to fix breakfast, lunch and snack, supervise their play, keep them from destroying the school and be there from 7AM till 6PM. Will there be an extra $25 per child for this sacrifice? Probably not!
I am a working mother of two children and the thought of them having to sacrafice a wonderful trip to the St. Louis Zoo because three other students don't know how to behave is infuriating. Often parents who work make a choice to have a career and enjoy their 8 hours of freedom from the family so being a working parent is a choice or necessity and daycares or GS operate for that reason, but please remember that it is the PARENTS responsibility to teach their own children to behave properly. My children behave because my husband and I enforce good behavior and there are consquences for poor behavior. Maybe those of you that are lawyers need to have a back up plan for days when YOUR child doesn't behave. Staying home because of bad behavior should be made to feel like a punishment not a reward again the parents' responsibility. If you teach your child to behave and to listen to teachers we wouldn't be having this discussion, would we?
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