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Boundaries

Yesterday was about boundaries. For me at least. Finding the space where we can all be ourselves, both teachers and students. Yesterday forced me to think deeply about my role as a teacher, my core values,  and what I am and am not comfortable with. It pushed me to explore my philosophy on the early childhood setting and emergent curriculum. I questioned my ability to really be true to children's interests and allow them to be who they are and pursue what interests them. Luckily, I had a study group to attend last night; kind of therapy for people working with children. I was able to share my thoughts, musing, and reflections with this wide group of intelligent people and although we didn't have any definitive answers, it sure felt good.

Let me give you one example although there were other situations. I am choosing to share with you this particular one because I believe it comes up a lot for many educators. And, dare I say without reprimand, mostly with female educators. I must confess that I have issues with guns in class, not uncommon I know. And, of course, as we all know, pretty much everything can be transformed into a gun- a toilet paper role, lego, crystal builders, blocks, a pretend asparagus, a paint brush- you get the idea. Generally our policy is no guns, no weapons in class. Lately I have been observing the play however and started to think about where this fascinations stems from. Is it the noise? The shape? The power? Or does it go way way back to our intrinsic need to defend ourselves amongst danger? Surely we cannot blame tv and video games for this interest because I know many families that do not allow these things in their own home and yet it is still part of their child's life. We have talked about it; parents and teachers together with utter bewilderment.

So... what do we do? How do we handle this dilemma? If we maintain our policy are we being congruent with our  mission to value children and their interests? If we shut down this type of role play are we sending the message that this interest is not valued? Will children then think that other ideas they have may also be shut down? Are we creating more of an issue by making it a huge issue ( the old rebellious side waiting to emerge)? If we allow it, are we promoting violence? Are we condoning using weapons? An interesting question came up last night...what about the child who has a parent that hunts and has guns in the house that are cleaned, cared for and respected in that household? As you can see this is a huge issue.

So, back to yesterday in class. The boys took our math cubes and turned them into swords. They wanted to sword fight. I watched for a while and then they sought out Emmett. They were clever enough not to ask myself or Yvette to play sword fighting! Emmett was given a sword and I watched in awe as they played. Emmett guided them into a slow motion series of moves and it was actually a beautiful moment of camaraderie and engaged play. I was interested to see where it would go. And,predictably, it did get very loud and then people were moving faster. My initial reaction was to put a stop to it. And, then, my new voice came into my head and said "Let them take it outside onto the balcony." And then, boys and girls joined in, the play progressed and changed and went through the typical morphing of play that happens with four year olds. So, do I have answers....no. Do I have more questions... YES! And this is why I love love love my job! Thank you children, thank you Emmett and thank you study group.



Emily

Comments

Unknown said…
I have asked the question myself too. I was happy when I was told that its not a gun but Spider-Man throwing out his webs at schoolI wonder if the conversation changes to a tool and how police, soldiers use them as tools. One positive thing is they are creating the weapon and not using a replica and their imaginations are working on the how. I have been trying to redirect and having a conversations on how can we play with out using guns. Maybe your next topic is looking at knights and medical times. Positive spin on a negative object. Love how Emmet taught a positive way on how to sword fight and not to just to hurt, kind of like fencing.
2 February 2013 at 12:02
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