"Just tell them to wait." " Make them go before circle." "Just say no." These were the quotes that were among the most frequently used comments by the other preschool teachers. I replied that if they asked to use the bathroom, then let them! My reply was met with similar disrespectful comments about how everyone will have to go then and how disruptive it would be to the circle time activity. I finally replied that the children are more important than the activity.
How is it that preschool teachers value their agenda more than the needs of the children? Where did we go wrong when we were teaching them how to teach? Are we as professors respecting our students? Our job is to model for the adults how we want them to behave as teachers.
Often we dismiss children's requests that are not aligned with what we want them to do. We dismiss the physical need that children have to move, to wiggle, to engage with us and with others, to eat, to sleep and to eliminate when they need to. Our dismissal of their needs, their human needs is to our detriment.
Children want and deserve respect. Respect children's desires. Respect their ability to know what their body needs.
