I'm not a political person. Quite frankly, with the exception of the life issue, I really find politics a lot of hysteria and poor form. But occasionally, I will enter a political discussion just to keep my mind from going tink. Last week, I entered such a discussion and found I was able to hold my own quite easily against a barrage of name calling, false accusations, outrageous claims, excuses and finally that "I know better than you, so I'll just lecture you calling you by name." I laughed out loud. I am rarely moved by poor discussion skills, bullying, and assumptions.
As I plodded along, I remembered three things: ideas backed by facts, kindness first, and statements that are objective and always calm. I thought back to a time when I wanted a very poor teacher fired. She had been particularly unkind to children who were not Caucasian, had a grammar pattern so low there is no comparison, and did not know that Dr. Seuss rhymed. I had been saddled with this stellar young person long enough, and during a discussion with my principal, I remembered those three things: ideas backed by facts, kindness first, and statements that are objective and always calm, and it was enough to send her into a fit of anger that did the job for me. No possible argument was going to get this one fired, so I let kindness do it for me.
As I thought about my recent quasi political discussion and the cheeky young dingbat who was fired, I began to ponder the idea of encouraging children to begin to speak, to answer in class, to respond to a question, to think before blurting in such a manner that the ability to speak publicly and well will stay with them all of their lives. If one begins at three or four to respond out loud, clearly, with the best reason he can muster - every time to the best of his or her ability, it will surely become a habit. That really needs to be the goal of anyone working with very young children.
If teachers can get children to listen and understand, the next step is to use their reasoning to respond. Now it's true that cognition may not allow every child to think properly at three or four or even five or six, but practice makes perfect. It is said that the "age of reason" is age seven years. I have heard children make very intelligent statements far earlier than seven, so it's worth a try.
Here's a conversation with a three year old that happened last week: "Miss Molly, I'm not sure I like you calling me Dill Pickles."
"Well," asked Miss Molly, "What would you like me to call you?"
"Mac and cheese," said the curly headed little cracker jack child of my deepest affections.
"How about just 'Cheese?' asked Miss Molly.
The child grinned with joy. He HAD to have thought this whole thing through, execute it with language skills, and make himself and his desires known in a brief and concise way. He is three.
The problem with most conversations with young children is that they offer one word and then make the adult guess what it is that they want. Complete sentences please. "I want to know what it is and what it is doing." That will make a complete sentence.
That's the form, now this is the idea to be put into form: When they are gathered as a group, the teacher asks a very interesting question that will immediately bring interest to most of the group. Several children will raise their hands to respond. When the responder is chosen, the teacher must help him sort out his thoughts to create a concise and splendid answer in a nice voice and be able to proudly continue with the next question. No one word answers, no ummms, no nose picking, no sucking fifty fingers or turning to the next child-just a nice couple of words that can be formed into a thought. And every question well constructed, and every answer perfected. Lots of talking, lots of thinking, and lots of laughter to keep the interest high.
So one of these days, I will get back to you with how it all worked.
No comments:
Post a Comment