Growing up

    Today my partner child was playing with my hair. She suddenly stopped and started crying. When I asked her why she was crying she said through her sobs " I wish I was white." What do you say to a four year old girl who hates who she is? I just told her that she was beautiful the way she was and that it doesn't matter what color you are. How sad is it that a child is already assuming the idea that being white is better or more beautiful. In a world that is supposed to be advanced and where racism is theoretically behind us, I find myself hearing more stories of African American children having some form of preconceived notion about white people, either that they are better in some way or that people of African decent are supposed to dislike white people. Whatever the case may be one thing remains true, this country and its people have a lot of growing up to do. 

Spring Break

     Returning to work after spring break was lets be honest, difficult. But a smile was quickly brought to my face at lunchtime. After pouring their milk a group of girls raised their tiny cups and shouted cheers! The teacher and I laughed, but our laughter was brought to a halt when they jumped up and started howling "spring break!" Of course we had to tell them to stop but not before the director of the preschool saw. What are these girls exposed too that would make them act like that? I didn't even know that kids knew about spring break. I have to admit it was funnier to me than serious, but at the same time the more I think about it the more disturbing it is.

Kids

                After working overtime this week I realized that the people who are close to me are convinced that I am going to have like 9 kids. I was shocked when I heard this my only response was to say "Don't you know that the world is over populated?" They all laughed and told me it was inevitable that I would have a lot of kids. I went home and thought about this, hoping for some deep routed revelation. After hours of thinking I finally came to the conclusion that they were out of their minds. For me to have 9 kids Hell would have to freeze over first. The next day when I saw my ridiculously stupid friends I asked them why they assumed I would have so many children. "Well because you work with them" was the best answer that they could come up with. A smile came across my face as I told them my brilliant revelation from the other night. " Guys, I love working with kids but nothing can compare to the very sweet and joyful moment of giving them back at the end of the day." 

               A mother asked me the other day how to explain to her daughter that mommy was not going to die just because she was bleeding. I advised that she show the girl how she would wrap her cut and then she'd see that mom was okay. The mom looked at me and said it was my period I took her into the bathroom with me and she saw the blood on the toilet paper. I did not have an answer for that. Sometimes I think that people are too open with their personal lives.

Doctor

       Some genius decided to bring in a doctor kit for the kids to play with today. Need a say more? Don't get me wrong I love the kids I work with, but after yelling " Pull your pants up" and "Don’t touch her there" all day I'm a little irritated. Playing doctor is like a bad cliché, but until you see it for yourself you cannot understand the depth of how perverted it is. But that is through the eyes of an adult; to the kids there is nothing wrong about it. They know that boys are different from girls, but they don't know why. They know that they take their clothes off at the doctors’ office so the doctor can examine them with ease. There is nothing sexual about this game to the kids it's just a game. It's the adults that make it taboo. Granted we can’t allow the kids to take of their pants and run around but freaking out and screaming doesn't help either. Kids freak out more when the adults do, so calm down and think about this from their perspective. 

Kissing

          Today a three-year-old boy tried to kiss a four-year-old girl. We as teachers laughed and said how cute they were, then immediately separated them. This is never something I thought I would have to deal with when teaching children this young. But I guess when you look at the world they grow up in it's not that surprising. Many have single parents who date, along with the movies and television programs they are allowed to watch, like Family Guy, it's no wonder that to a child they think "I'm a boy, she's a girl so I should kiss her." I'm not questioning the parents’ ability to teach their children, but I am wondering whether or not these kids are doing something wrong. I know when I was three I was probably not thinking about boys but then again who knows, I certainly don’t remember. Maybe it's not something we should label as taboo, or a bad behavior. I agree that the kids should be separated and told that this is not an appropriate thing to be doing in a classroom, but should we tell them that kissing is bad?