What’s the difference? Let’s see this mommy’s take on the matter, shall we? Translated…
My son played the game of teachers with us last night, my husband and I played the role of young children, he was the teacher, after he’d called off the roll, and returned our assignment books, we’d asked him if he wanted to go to the bathrooms? “Nope, teachers don’t need to go, they don’t need water and talked incessantly!”
“Then, maybe the next time you’re in class, you can ask your teacher why she doesn’t need to go to the restrooms!”
“I can’t, she doesn’t listen to us!”, my son said, with that sorrowful tone of voice.
Then, he’d started his continual nagging, “The little girls, do get up, pull a tissue, then go to the bathrooms, and after you’re done, stand in line, to wash your hands at the sink; then, the little boy’s turn……then, enter into the classroom, take our your bowl, place the tissue you got out of the bathrooms under the bowl, and after you finished eating, wipe your bowl down, those who finished their meals quickly can go to read; after the teacher checked, you can then, throw your toilet paper into the trash, then, sit on the chairs, wait for the other children who aren’t finished with their meals………”
illstration from the papers online…
This went on, for about a month’s time, it’s quite normal, that a four-year-old young child can recite what was said to them repeatedly.
This morning, was my son’s fourth time in challenging his kindergarten for the full day, because today was a hard-to-come-by toy day, in the afternoons, the children would be able to trade the toys they’d brought from home with one another. At four when I’d gone to pick my son up, the teacher told me excitedly, “your son probably liked today’s schedules, I think he’ll be okay for the whole day session, and he’d told me he was willing to give it a shot too!”
As we’d left, she’d had the whole class say goodbye to us! As we got out of the school, I’d asked my son, do you want to consider full days next week? He’d replied coldly, “I’m afraid, I can’t!”, was it his teacher who’d, misunderstood then? He’d shrugged, then told me, “I just told my teacher for kids!” you bad, bad boy!
On the way home, he’d suddenly told me, “I’d behaved myself today, I’d followed the instructions of the teacher whole day, am I a good boy?”, I’d suddenly, felt that sourness came up inside my heart, I’d told him, “baby, you don’t need to behave yourself, nor do you need to follow every order given to you by the teacher, we just need to know, what your teacher would do to punish you, and what you can do, if you don’t want to get punished, that would be enough.” Raising a “well-behaved” child, that was, never my intentions!
But, I’d found, that I’d, worried in excess soon enough, because he’d played that game of dropping the spoon at lunch, to the point that his teacher had a meltdown, he’d described it, “the spoon kept making that clinking sound as I’d dropped it onto the floors, it’s, so fun, then I’d, picked it up, then, dropped it again………”, he’d not taken a nap like he was supposed to either, kept getting up in the nap hours, and, as everybody else in his class wakes up, he’d, fallen asleep…………
As my son was describing his day to me, I was, very focused on listening, to keep myself from cracking up, or to beat the crap out of him, I’d started having a headache, just thinking about it, so, my son was just, having an elevated self-esteem, nothing more.
But, I’d told him, do be a good boy, but you don’t have to be well-behaved.
So, do you understand the difference between these? Being a good boy, means having the right kinds of characters: don’t take someone else’s toys without asking, eat your foods like you’re supposed to, follow all the rules of the class, generally speaking, while, being a well-behaved boy is becoming a mechanical robot, doing what you’re being told, as your instructor told you to sit, you’d, sit, like dog training, and, who would want their young children to be trained like dogs to sit, stay, and good boy, now, go FETCH mommy her pink bunny slippers? I would imagine, that all of you parents out there, would want your own young to have the abilities to decide for themselves, what suits them in life better, instead of just, blinding following the crowd and do whatever everybody else is doing, right?