Every Sunday, I have the privilege of hanging out with and teaching catechism to several children between the ages of four and six. Sure, I am supposed to be teaching them the Catholic faith, but with children of this age, sometimes it is more effective to just simply talk to them. So, that leads to my classroom being a very casual, friendly, and fun place to be. Through this I have grown to love and care about each child that has walked through my door. Relationships have been established. Comfort has been developed. And myriad memories have been made!
As we all
very well know, young children have a tendency to imagine and say things that we,
as “grown-ups”, find humorous. This
morning I was in my classroom waiting for church to let out and to see the
smiling faces run through the door, excited to begin class. Sure enough, I was not disappointed as Stephanie
bolted into the room. Grinning from
ear-to-ear, Stephanie ran straight over to me and gave me a huge hug! I could tell that she was very anxious to
tell me something, so I asked her, “What’s up Stepha…?” Before I could even finish my sentence,
Stephanie excitedly piped in, “Teacher Kylie!
I found a coconut!”
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“A coconut?!”
I curiously replied. Then, Stephanie
stuck her hand in her pocket, searched around, and pulled out what she believed
was the coconut that she had found. When
I saw that she was proudly holding a pinecone up in the air, I couldn’t help
but giggle. I knew that I could not
allow Stephanie to continuing believing that the pinecone she held was a
coconut, so I gently informed her that what she had found was a pinecone. Upon doing this, I saw Stephanie’s smile fade
a slight bit. She was so proud and
ecstatic about her “coconut” that she had told me immediately upon seeing
me. Had I done wrong in telling
Stephanie that her “coconut” was in fact a pinecone? Had I lessened her excitement in finding something
new? These were all questions that ran
through my head as I saw Stephanie walk somewhat solemnly over to her seat.
Ok, now I know
that many of you may be thinking that I am overreacting. She obviously needs to
know that what she had was a pinecone.
But had you seen the joy on her face when she presented her coconut to
me, you would understand my struggle.
This is not the first time that I have run into this situation,
however. Every class I am bombarded with
stories and rambles from the children that are obviously not true. As their teacher, I feel that it is my responsibility
to teach them the difference between imaginary and reality. But, on the other hand, I feel that I will be
rejecting creativity and imagination from the world by focusing solely on
reality. It is important that we
understand reality, yet imagine anyway!
Love Always,
Kylie K.
Hahaha. I love this! It amazes me the things that little kids can come up with. I remember the days like these when the littlest things seemed to be the most exciting events in our lives. I think that you were one hundred percent right in correcting her. Without people like you, everyone would be walking around calling pine cones coconuts! I love hearing about your catechism stories, they warm my heart. You never cease to amaze me! I love you Kylie K.!
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a very challenging question. I too wonder if it is right to let kids believe in things like the tooth fairy and Santa. As I was thinking about your question I tried to remember when I found out that Santa wasn’t real. I cannot remember any one ever telling me I just figured it out myself. Maybe that’s the answer is that as we get older reality has a way of finding us. No one needs to tell us we just will figure it out. That being said you are in a difficult place being a teacher and a person who the children look up too. I am sure you will do what you think is best and in the long run the children you teach will benefit from your wisdom. I love that you took the time to think about how actions affect those around us especially the people younger than us. Great blog Kylie I am curious to see how you answer your question.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! Are little kids not the greatest?! I really love this story. I agree with you that there can be a fine line deciding if we should be teaching children or letting there imaginations inside of them run wild. I think you handled the situation with as much love as you always do. You have a special connection with kids that is clear to see. I think that is a beautiful gift that not many people have. It's one thing to love your own children, but to be able to teach and influence other people’s children is really like a super power. Kids are so magical and I think we can learn so much from them. Keep being the wonderful teacher and friend you are to children every where! (: love you!
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