Unapplauded Courage

Kindergarten. A word synonymous with crayons, carelessness, picture books, mini-melodramas, finger paints, snack time and fun.

Not.

I hope to heaven I was not a problem child in kindergarten. Don't get me wrong. I love going everyday. I am extremely proud of myself, I nearly have all the kids names down! And there are 48 of them to memorize. However I watch the teacher state, cajol, repeat, reprimand, repeat, remind, exhort, repeat, and correct about 15 billion times a day. This is just the teacher mind you. I do nearly as much correcting as she does, as do both of the TA's as well as the parent volunteers who come in everyday. After hearing 'I can't', 'She breathed on me!', 'Teacher look at this', 'My dog (insert story here)', 'He cut in line!', 'She won't let me have a turn,' ect. ect. forty billion times a day, on top of trying to be sensitive to student development, cirriculum goals and ability levels of each child.... I am worn out.

Kindergarten teachers have quickly jumped to the top of my list of bravest people I know.

I don't want to sound cocky, but I think I can do a fairly good job in the classroom. I can keep control of the class, run my center fairly smoothly and I'm learning the 'correct' way to give correction. Of course I still need a ton of practice. But I'm wondering if I will fall apart from exhaustion if I decide to be a regular education teacher, at least one in a kindergarten classroom that is.

Next time I go home I need to look up my kindergarten teacher, and tell her thanks. Teacher's are so undervalued. Sometimes when I tell people that I am an education major I feel like they look at me and think 'you couldn't think of anything better to go into?' Often times I think it's looked at as the 'copout' major. "I didn't know what to be... I couldn't handle that program... so I'll teach."

This paragraph is for all those people who think that teaching, and especially young childhood education, is a 'copout' major. One day when you are a parent, make sure you volunteer to help in your child's preschool or kindergarten class. Be there ALL day- don't wuss out and go for only an hour or two. Ask the teacher a few questions about the importance of early vocabulary and language aquisition as well as early intervention programs. I promise you will be amazed with what you see and learn. And if you aren't... either you are an educator, or your child has a clueless teacher.

The government, the kids, the parents, the developmental problems, the cirriculum goals ect. ect... have all been put teacher's between a rock and a hard spot. They work their tails off and get no recognition for it, but I think if more people could get an inside look at what exactly teacher's do and why they do it, maybe they'd be willing to do more to help.

So this is my tribute to early childhood educators. Thank you. I don't know if I'm brave enough to do what you do.

Special Education is looking really appealing right now....