Remember What It's Like To Be A Kid

We can be hard on kids sometimes (to some, a lot of times). We expect certain things from them, and those things are usually just simple things such as sit still for five minutes or to remember something we said just thirty seconds ago, and when we don't get those things from them, we get frustrated. Different people deal with that frustration differently, but I've noticed from observations of the people around me and also of myself (a lot of myself, actually) that we tend to take that frustration out on the kids. We raise our voices to them, we make noises or faces, or maybe even worse.

I had this particular experience where I was teaching a dance move to this 9 year-old and the kid didn't do it how I wanted him to, even after four times of explaining and showing how it was to be done. Then I got frustrated and sort of displayed that frustration by mengeluh (I don't have a proper English word with me at the moment for that). The kid obviously wanted to do it the way that I wanted it to be, but the kid just couldn't remember to raise their arms at that particular moment in the song.

Then I caught myself having this expectation of the kid that was similar to my expectations of adults. I realised that I was treating this kid like they were an adult. I didn't empathize with the kid because I myself had forgotten what it was like to be in the kid's shoes. I had forgotten in that moment what it was to be a kid, thus I subjected him to my grown-up expectations.

By doing this, I was not helping the kid perform at all. They felt pressured and tense and couldn't really get it right because they weren't enjoying it at all. I was the cause of that, and I feel terrible now for making them feel that way. I am sorry for my behaviour and my lapse in reasonability. 

I think that if teachers were to keep in touch with their inner-child, and keep in touch with it often, then less stress would be induced to both the teachers and the kids. We have to remember what it felt like to be their age and do what they do at that age, and in turn treat them in a way we would have liked to be treated as such an age. Not to say that it would all be fun and games when it comes to kids, no. But we need to understand why students do what they do, or at least try to. And if we could understand it just a little bit better, then maybe we could adjust our behaviour to get the best out of our students and realise their potential a little bit better.

I'm not saying that there isn't room for strictness when dealing with children. I'm just saying that maybe there should be more room for empathy, kindness and understanding when it comes to communicating with our students. Maybe then we'd be able to move more towards being a more empathic, kind and understanding people. Just maybe.