Showing empathy toward the needs of young children, translated…
Yesterday was our second family outing since school started, the whole family walked my son to school. Actually, he’d, begged and pleaded many, many, many times, and I had too, finally agreed, that he only needed to have a full day of school on Fridays, then, his wish shall, come true.
Naturally, my son would NEVER just go out to school like a wonderful child like this, we’d still, dragged on, and on, to right before he’d be late, and made it into school (or maybe, we were, already, late???), seeing how the full class of students no longer appeared so timid or scared like they had two months ago, it was, moving, and, I thought they were, quite cute. But, because my son had his parents take him to school, he’d become, so high he’d, run out of control, I’m not talking about his psychological state of mind, I’m talking about physically, he’d, really, turned in circles repeatedly in class, and not caught up to the rest of the class as the other students got in line, gone to the toilets, and had their breakfasts, as I watched him from outside the class, I’d, had to hold back my urges of running into the class, and shake him hard, hey kid, wake UP!
Before I left, I’d heard that the students will have a new seating arrangement, oh, this can’t be good, any sort of a change, can bring adverse effects to a four-year-old, it may be positive, or negative, and, giving the children a heads-up, can reduce the impacts. That very evening, I’d, told my son of this at supper, and naturally, I’d received a strong reaction from him, and all my reasonings, went out the windows, he’d announced that on the day that the teacher was switching them, he will NOT be going to school, that he will be, truant on that day.
The next day, I’d told the teacher of my son’s reactions, and she’d promised, that she will delay the seating rearrangement for a few days. By the time school let out on that day, the teacher already helped my son find a satisfactory solution: he and some of his other classmates won’t switch their seats, that the rest of his classmates will switch, but the teacher also reminded him, that one of these days, he will be the one, needing to, switch seats too, my son nodded and agreed to the teacher’s way. I’m truly grateful, toward his teacher, she’s amazing.
I couldn’t help but think, am I too anal? I’d showed an intense worry over my son’s seating arrangement in school. But, thinking on our process of life, the teachers’ daily routines, for the students, it may be a huge change in their lives, from turning off the lights, closing the doors, rearranging the seats in the class, adjusting the daily routines, for a child who has an established routine already, this bring, panic, making her/him anxious, or angry even, and, if I’d, mentioned this to the teacher, and can have her remind the students, am I not, taking care of all the other children besides my own son too?
Every child needs to be treated with the gentleness, and the caring, and the concern, and, in the office, if the parents needed to arrange their desks, they may be full of complaints too, and perhaps, the children are small T-rex, and, the small warnings can cause a huge reaction in them, but in the future, they will, bump into something that’s, outside of their controls, they may be reminded, that back when they were so little, someone had, bothered, to take the time, to explain to her/him, why things are happening, and that sort of a gentle kindness of heart, it can not just, help him calm himself down, but also, he can show that gentle kindness toward others in need as well, as a parents, that, is all I hope, for my own child.
And so, this, is from the parent’s perspective, and, as we start off in school there are, a lot of changes we all need to, adapt to, and, we must slowly, learn to socialize, interact well, with others, through these smaller interactions with the outside world, and at this time, if the adults can be more considerate of the children’s needs and wants, it would help them adapt better to life.
Life, the Obstacle Course 