Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

Monday. I meet a friend of mine who has her one year old daughter with her. She wants to get lunch at the cafeteria and asks me to take care of the baby for a moment. Cue the longest five minutes of my life. I try to entertain her with a banana. At first she laughs. Then she cries. In the end, she looks at me with tear-filled eyes and I am not sure who wants to get out of this place more: The child or myself.
Tuesday. I have a tour at the museum for a bunch of fourth-graders. At first, I read them a story. Then I send them through the museum to look at things. Then they draw stuff. The kids are into it. The love the story, they love the stuff they see, they love to draw. They keep grabbing my hand and asking about stuff. Great times.
Wednesday. Nothing.
Thursday. Back to the museum. Same tour, same school, different class, grade five. I'm struggling to keep the children under control. The teachers keep shouting at them. Kids are bored by story. Kids don't want to draw. Teachers look at me with sympathy.

Am I good with children? Do I like working with children? How should I know?
 
There are two things I've learnt from the seven years I spent as a teacher.
First - teachers are freaks. Some are control freaks, others are crazy about the subject they teach. Most are just freaks. And they love their own voice.Bit that's irrelevant. Second - each class has a collective personality. It is not just the sum of all students in the class but is something larger. There is nothing you can do about it.

One-year-olds don't count. They are just babies.
 
Ariana said:
And they love their own voice.
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Not just that, but also what they say. Once they come up with a good thing to say, they will repeat it to infinity.

Second - each class has a collective personality. It is not just the sum of all students in the class but is something larger. There is nothing you can do about it.
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And as soon as you catch a kid outside of the class identity, they may behave completely different. What's funny is that you usually get a wrong first impression. The story I read to them is a sort of fairy tale involving flying camels, a prince and a princess, and so on. I've had this one several times before and made an interesting observation. Usually you'd expect it's the sweet little girls who'd be most into it, but the ones who are the most excited are almost always the cool blokes - the cooler they appear, the more interested they are. I had a kid today whom by his clothes and style you'd consider 'ghetto', especially in the town I come from and he told me he wished that there really were flying camels and that it's sad this was only a fairy tale.
 
Perun said:
None that I'm aware of! :blink:

No, I'm working as a museum guide for my student job and most of what I do is school workshops of various sorts.
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:D You're just at that age and it sounded like the world was testing you. :devil2:
 
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I remember those "Let's take them on a walk and tire them out" times when mine were little.
It was always me on the couch afterward. :oops:
 
No joke!

I'm caught between being worried at having two teen age daughters, and being happy that they are self sufficient.
 
I can relate. Mine are usually pretty level-headed, but my youngest just started high school and the early days have been about attracting the attention of the older boys. :eek:
 
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