I am a teacher. I am a mom. As a mom, I am always teaching my son (and believe it or not, he is absolutely teaching me). The thing I didn't expect however, was that now, when I teach, I use my the mom part of my brain and am really able to see the act of education not only through the educator's point of view but through a mom's point of view. I guess I naively thought that I would be able to distance myself from that part of myself while I was teaching but, not only am I not able to do that, I don't want to. I think I am a better teacher, especially for the preschoolers I teach, because I am a mom. During parent-teacher meetings at the Nursery School I taught at, I would glibly tell the parents of my students, "I am not a mom, so I cannot say what I would do if I was in your place, but..." and then add in some tree-ripened piece of pedagogical wisdom.
And for the most part, I would have been on the right track--educationally speaking, but it was how I said it that needed to be tweaked a little. I see that now. But then I also see the flaws in the educational system more keenly. I know too much about the goings on inside a school. I know what needs or should be happening, from the parent's perspective, the teacher's perspective and the director's perspective. Mix this with an overinflated Super-teacher complex, and a proclivity to butt in and you have me. Well meaning, well educated and willing to share what I know.
As my son gets older, and more choices for his education need to be made, I am aware of two things. I am an educational snob, and my instincts are usually right on.
Before I write any further, I want to tell you, dear reader, that I usually am modest, but you didn't come here to read a blog written by someone without any expertise. I want to share with you what I know to help you make better decisions about educating your child, whether on Staten Island, in Brooklyn or in Botswana. Actually I take that back, probably not Botswana, but Seattle maybe. I will impart what I know using humor and insight. I am very interested in the field of education, especially early childhood and special education. I think about it often and to the possible annoyance of the parents in my son's classes, friends and acquaintances I talk about it often as well.
My basic philosophy of how to educate a child (or anyone for that matter) is identifying the key to how they learn and making it meaningful to them. I identify with Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and use it to teach my students in the way that they will learn best. The key is to get that child to love school, but a child who likes to use his hands to learn will not do well in a classroom that doesn't allow touching as an option. A child who needs to see how something is done before internalizing a lesson will not do well in a class where rote memorization is the main instructional tool.
I hope to write a post at least 4 times a week. Let's see how that goes shall we! Until then, remember the key to your child's love of anything lies with you. If you are psyched about learning and reading they will be too
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