This is very important. No child (or adult) needs to believe that they can make a mistake from which they can’t recover. A classroom is no place to hold a grudge. A classroom is a place for learning and learning happens with mistakes.  When a child goes home for the day, you no longer have any influence over what happens in his day. For some, leaving your room is leaving their safe zone. For others, leaving your room is to go to a place where there are no rules and no accountability, while some children go to a warm and nurturing home that is filled with love and structure and a family that supports education. It is not fair, but it is reality. No matter where they go at the end of the school day, the students need to be assured that when they come back to your classroom, it will be a new day and they will have another chance to make you proud. Remind them that tomorrow is coming and there are no mistakes in it yet.  Early childhood learners want to please the teacher and when they decide you can’t be pleased; you have a whole new problem to solve. Trust me when I tell you that offering every child a fresh start to a new day is the far easier path to travel. Besides, it is the right thing to do.

There will be times when a student comes to school burdened by a situation outside of his control. You don’t have to know all the details to give that child some extra support that day. Communicate with parents to send you an email that just says HANDLE WITH CARE if the child is struggling with something that you need to handle gently. It will give the parent and the child comfort to know that you are aware of the struggle and will intercede before a circumstance gains traction that could make the situation worse. 

For decades, it seems that our culture has been attempting to replace teachers with computers. If it could be done, it would have been done already. While a computer might be able to engage a student’s interest or drill facts, it cannot replace the personal element of nurturing and priming the learner to receive new information and assimilate it into his existing schema. This is why our profession is an art. 

I’ll never forget the PEC parent (who had a child with multiple PEC eligibilities…ASD, dyslexia, ODD) who told me that…”every parent sends you the best child they have that morning…”  You only have control over what happens while the student is with you that day. Oftentimes, I had to put my academic goals or objectives for a particular student “on hold” while we went to the Sensory Integration Room, or went to swing on the playground, or roll down the grassy sloping hills. This information, along with much more, should be in the IEP of each individual PEC student you serve.

Pamela Webster, M.Ed. SPED

Experienced teachers- if you have a story that supports this topic, please add it in the comments below.