Spider-Man鈥檚 Uncle Ben could have been speaking directly to teachers when he said, 鈥淲ith great power comes great responsibility.鈥�
As teachers, we can make kids do almost anything we want. They鈥檙e smaller than us. We have all kinds of power over them, from getting them in trouble at home to taking away the things that make school tolerable, like going outside for recess or sitting with their friends in class. But just because we can make our students do what we want doesn鈥檛 mean we should.
Children aren鈥檛 just smaller versions of adults. They are their own kind of being. They need to move, talk, question, and explore more than we do, because they鈥檙e in the midst of that mind-boggling explosion of cognitive, physical, and social-emotional growth that marks childhood in our species. When it comes to behaviors like staying quiet or sitting still, it doesn鈥檛 make sense to hold young children to norms better suited to adults, because the way they experience the world is fundamentally different from the way grownups do.
In school, we often ask children to do things that are unreasonable given their developmental level. Worse still, we sometimes ask them to do things we would never expect of adults.
Take these four examples.
1. Silence
Many schools expect a monastic code of silence while students are traveling the halls. The rationale makes sense at first glance, and it鈥檚 one I鈥檝e explained to my class many times: 鈥淥ther students are working right now, and we don鈥檛 want to disturb them.鈥�
Still, if I were a kid, I鈥檇 wonder: 鈥淚f that鈥檚 true, why aren鈥檛 teachers silent in the hall?鈥�
Every time I run into a colleague in the hallway, we talk together while we walk to wherever we鈥檙e going. We chat about anything and everything, from the chances we鈥檒l get a snow day tomorrow to the latest season of 鈥淭rue Detective.鈥� This kind of conversation doesn鈥檛 seem to bother the kids working in classrooms off the hallway. Why would the voices of kids be any different?
Chatter in the hallways, or even the squeaking of wet shoes on the floor as a class returns from recess or P.E., doesn鈥檛 seem to bother most students. In fact, the only occasions when I鈥檝e seen kids completely distracted by what鈥檚 happening out in the hall are those times when a teacher is reprimanding his or her class鈥攐ften at a far greater volume than whatever commotion their students were causing to incur the reprimand.
We should take a close look at the times we expect kids to be silent in school. We need to distinguish between those times it鈥檚 truly for the good of the students, and when it has more to do with the appetite for control so deeply inculcated in adults placed in charge of children.
2. Sitting Still for a Long Time
Teacher , doing whatever the students did, and was shocked at what she experienced.
鈥淚 literally sat down the entire day, except for walking to and from classes. We forget as teachers, because we are on our feet a lot鈥攃ircling around the room to check on student work, kneeling down to chat with a student 鈥� we move a lot. But students move almost never. And never is exhausting.鈥�
For young kids, sitting still is even harder. There鈥檚 a lot we can do to make it easier on them.
- Build in strategies like for learning vocabulary, so students are moving while they learn.
- Take brain breaks鈥攊ncluding dance parties. There are plenty of great videos on websites like , or you can make up motions to classic children鈥檚 songs like
- Let students get up鈥攚ithout raising their hand for permission鈥攚henever they need to get a book from the class library, grab a pencil, or just stretch their legs for a minute.
- Above all, keep the teacher talk time to a minimum. A useful guideline is that students should be able to listen attentively for their age in minutes鈥攆ive minutes for a kindergartner, 15 for a sophomore in high school. Save most of your words for conversations with students one-on-one or in a small group. Children, like adults, learn the most when they鈥檙e engaged in meaningful work鈥攏ot sitting and listening while the teacher does all the talking and thinking.
3. Forced Apologies
I have definitely been guilty of this one. I鈥檒l break up a heated argument, then immediately demand that one or both kids apologize to one another, while their faces are still flushed with emotion from their recent conflict.
The early-childhood program my daughter attended never made the children tell each other, 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry,鈥� because an apology extracted by an authority figure isn鈥檛 a true expression of remorse.
Forced apologies don鈥檛 seem to offer much satisfaction to the child who receives them, either鈥攕eeing the other child mutter 鈥渟orry鈥� while glowering at his shoes pretty much never makes the recipient of the apology feel better.
Turbulent emotions take a long time to settle. We need to give kids that time.
4. Zero Tolerance for Forgetfulness
My friend and 1st grade teacher Cameron McCain has a great line when teachers start grumbling about our students: 鈥淚t鈥檚 like we鈥檙e dealing with a bunch of 7-year-olds around here!鈥�
His point is well taken. I get frustrated when Josh, who has been in my class for 17 months now, still forgets to check out a book or do his lunch choice when he gets to school. But like most adults I know, I鈥檓 a lot like Josh. I once turned on the coffeemaker without putting the coffeepot in first. (I didn鈥檛 realize what I鈥檇 done until hot, fragrant coffee started splattering onto my kitchen floor.)
I forget sometimes that not only are my students human, they鈥檙e really young humans. When they lose their lunch tag for the third day in a row, or ask the exact same question two other kids asked 30 seconds ago, we need to take a deep breath and offer them a sizeable dollop of grace.
Kids Are Kids. That鈥檚 Exactly Who They Should Be
We need to think hard about the demands we place on our students. Just because they obey the strictures we lay down doesn鈥檛 mean those edicts are fair.
We can鈥檛 expect the children in our care to behave like miniature adults. They need to move around more than we do. They need to make more noise than we do. They need to experience new concepts with their fingers, senses, and imaginative ability to consider not just the world as it is, but as it could be. Their curiosity, enthusiasm, and sense of wonder will never lend itself to straight lines and silent deskwork.
We spend so much time bending them to our way of doing things. We should pay more attention to theirs.
