I honestly believe that I received a top-notch education from DSC. The Early Childhood Education program did a wonderful job of preparing me for the profession of teaching. However, there are some things that you just can’t learn from a college lecture. These lessons have been some of the most challenging for my first year teaching. The biggest one is how to handle the source of my students TEARS. Tears are common in the grade one classroom. I am pretty sure that a day does not go by without seeing drops of salty water stroll down at least one child’s face.
These tears are not a result of the teaching, or the content (at least at the grade one level, I hope). The tears are a result of external factors which coincide with all of the other roles I have to play daily. Teachers are truly more than just teachers; we are nurses, disciplinarians, counselors, among other things to multiple children. These are the roles that I feel less adequately prepared for; these are the roles that I did not take a college course on.
Teacher as a nurse. I can humbly say I would not have made a good nurse! I cringe when I see a really bad cut; my stomach turns at the sight of blood. However, I am exposed to bloody knees and cut hands on a weekly basis. The only way to protect my students from injuries would be to place them in a plastic bubble - to have a class full of bubble boys and bubble girls. It would be a funny sight, but no life for a child.
My students also complain of headaches, stomach aches, and not feeling well often. I know that some of these complaints are true, I have “rubbish” cans full of tissue paper to prove it. However, I am not knowledgeable or experienced enough to always know when my students truly need to go home, or could push through the day. The types of decisions I make in accordance with my students’ injuries and health are purely trial and error.
When my students complain of a stomach ache, I tell them to go to the bathroom and as Comedian Tim Hawkins would say, “sit on the pot.” When my students have a headache, I tell them to drink some water (knowing that most headaches are caused by dehydration), and then tell them to let me know if it is still hurting in an hour and I will send them to the office to get medicine. When my students tell me they don’t feel good, I check to see if they have a fever, and if they feel hot, I send them to the office. If not, I tell them to try to make it through the day. When my students get injured I always try to take it seriously. If the injury has not resulted in blood, I usually tell the student to go to the bathroom and “run it under cold water” (which surprisingly always seems to work) or if it is really bad, I send them to get ice. If the injury does produce blood, then I put my nurse’s cap on and fix them up with a band aid and Neosporin. I have to get over my discomfort with injuries and be confident and encouraging, and ensure my student that it will be alright.
Teacher as a disciplinarian. My least favorite part of my job would be disciplining students. I finally understand what my father meant when he said, “this hurts me more than it hurts you” before he gave us a spanking. There are days, when it truly does hurt me to have to discipline a student; a student that I know is going to be crushed by my discipline. There are some students that want to please you. They work hard, they follow directions, and they are good examples for your other students. However, those students are also human, and they make mistakes. I have to make a hard decision when I choose to discipline those students for those rare mistakes. I could choose to turn my head and pretend I did not see their misbehavior or let it slide because it is usually not like them. However, I also miss a really important opportunity for helping to develop their character. You do not help your students by not disciplining them, you actually hurt them. Scripture says, “spare the rod, and spoil the child” and, “a father disciplines those that he loves.” It is those statements that give me a peace about disciplining my students. I do it because I love them, and I want them to become responsible!
Some of my students could care less about, “moving their star” and they have to move it on a weekly basis. It has been so long since they have gotten anything from the “treasure box”, that it is an elusive concept. These students are not bad, and I don’t love them any less. They are just normal kids with short attention spans or have frequent lapses of misjudgment. They are the students that keep your day interesting, humorous. They are the students you will forever be telling stories about. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. The actual act of disciplining is not as hard for these students, but decisions about how to best discipline them can become challenging. If you truly want your student to learn the lesson of, “there is a time and a place” for certain behaviors, then you have to consistently instruct them in that way.
Teacher as a counselor. There was a time that I thought I wanted to be a counselor. I thought I wanted to listen to people’s problems and help them find a solution. I just never thought the problems I would be solving would be so….challenging. For every bloody knee or woe over getting in trouble, I have two students whose tears are a result of hurt feelings. My students are at such an impressionable age. They are starting to build relationships with their classmates, and as we all know, relationships can be messy. They realize that they get along better with some students than others, and they don’t always know how to include everyone or tactfully tell someone they want to play something else or with someone else. Some students are friends with someone who is similar to them and this causes competition with one another, and sometimes the competition can become unruly. Sometimes the way students say something to their classmate is hurtful or in an unpleasant tone.
I daily have to play mediator between two students. Sometimes I get two sides to a story, and I am not sure which one is true. I have to make judgment calls between which incidents to take more seriously than others. When I see a pattern in a student’s behavior, I have to try and figure out a way to correct that behavior pattern. My heart breaks over seeing students treating one another unlovingly. I feel burdened to figure out a way to teach them about Christ’s love, and how they can show it to one another, always. Sometimes their “problems” and “disagreements” seem insignificant, but at this age it is truly shaping them. It is affecting the type of people they will become, and my job as their teacher is to counsel them and help them find their way.
Teaching itself is not that hard, but when you combine it with all of the other roles teachers have to play, it is a challenge. I think people often forget the significance of teachers.
Teachers are much like farmers that plant a harvest of knowledge and prune and cultivate the characters of their students. We have them for a year, and let them go for a lifetime. In some cases, we will never know the fruit of our labor. I had one student tell me the other day that he was going to be something better than a teacher - he was going to be a pastor. I loved hearing that, and I hope he does become a pastor! However, I hope he does not forget who teaches him the skills and knowledge he needs to become that pastor. For those of you who are teachers, be encouraged your labor is not in vain, it will produce a harvest. For anyone else, remember to acknowledge the role teachers have played in your life, and honor them by being great at what you do!
