[img]396|left|Alex Campbell||no_popup[/img]I’m a preschool teacher at a parent cooperative school. Parents work alongside teachers every day, playing, preparing snack, making art projects, etc. If I had a dollar for every time a parent said to me, “I couldn’t do this every day…” I would have a bigger wardrobe.
Thing is, I sort of feel sorry for people who don’t work with children. I am surrounded by cuteness and wonder every single day. You know how you see a kid do or say something cute, and it gives you a little lightheaded feeling? Imagine having that feeling several times a day. It’s like walking on air. And I’m not some newbie who just got her degree and isn’t burnt out yet. I’ve been working with children for twenty-three years, and it never gets old.
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I’ve collected quotes and stories from kids I’ve worked with over the years.
Here’s a sample:
A kid came to preschool sounding a little stuffy. I asked her if she was getting a cold. She said, “No, I already have it.”
When I ran an art class for homeschooled kids, I was telling a group of ten- and eleven-year-olds about my fantasy of skating in the Winter Olympics.
Sila, 10: Alex, you’ll be great.
Jasmine, 11: Yeah, in the hospital!
I gave Jasmine an incredulous look.
Jasmine: What? Maybe you’ll get Jell-O.
At an English tutoring lesson with a ten-year-old Japanese boy and his thirteen-year-old sister, I was asking the boy questions. He responded, in Japanese, to his sister. After awhile, I asked him why he kept answering his sister when I was the one who was asking him the questions. He said that he was tired. He said in English, “School.” I felt so sorry for him. I said sympathetically, “Oh, I know, it’s so hard, everyone speaking English all the time. English, English, English! I understand why you’re so tired.” He replied again in English, looking at me this time. “No, Gym. Yoga.” Then he said in Japanese that his back hurt. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the couch.
Makes Perfect Sense
At preschool, a group of girls were playing together, and I asked them what they were playing. One girl said, “We’re playing Baby Find Celebration.” I asked what that was, and she told me that a baby gets lost, they find the baby, and they celebrate. Simple, yet powerful.
Others like to exercise power. Once, at preschool, Claire brought in a toy iPod. It was so attractive that other kids were listening to it instead of eating their snacks. I really got on Claire’s case, yammering on and on about how she and her friends needed to eat, she shouldn’t bring that to school if it’s too distracting, blab, blah, blah…
Claire turned to me after my tirade and said, “Alex, I think you should leave early today.” That broke the tension in a second. Kids will tell it like it is.
And sometimes, it’s more than you can imagine. We have a new girl at school from Italy, Arianna. She’s really into Cinderella, so much so that I learned how to say “Cinderella” in Italian. Something like, “Chinerentulla.” It’s fun to say. Today, Arianna’s mother told me that Arianna told her she liked me because I had blond hair and blue eyes…just like Cinderella! When you are elevated to the status of a princess, it just doesn’t get any better.
Of course, I have also gotten a handwritten note that says I’m fired.
When you work with kids, you live in the moment. You never know what to expect. You see development and change. You laugh a lot, and you’re never bored. I realize it’s not for everyone. I’m very grateful to computer programmers, nurses, lawyers, doctors and accountants, because they have jobs that I certainly couldn’t do. To each her own.
Thank goodness there are all sorts of jobs for all sorts of people. Even if you get fired sometimes, you can always come back as a princess the next day.
Ms. Campbell may be contacted at campbellalexandra@hotmail.com
