Heart-Centered Teaching
August 16, 2012
Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
-Chinese Proverb
It would be hard to trust gardening advice from someone whose own garden was an overgrown weed patch," observes Nancy Rosenow in the opening of the newest book in the Exchange Store, Heart-Centered Teaching Inspired by Nature.  Rosenow continues...

 "I suspect it's also hard for children to believe that learning is exciting and worthwhile unless the adults in their lives actually value and enjoy learning themselves.  Years ago, studying to be an educator, I had no idea that the most impressive lessons I'd be delivering would come from the way I lived my own life.  But that turned out to be the case.  Children know authenticity when they see it, and they know pretense.  They undoubtedly saw some of both in me.

"Over the years I've come to believe that those of us who work with or for children have a responsibility to nurture themselves as tenderly as we nurture the children in our care.  Children deserve to be taught by people who delight in the wonders of the world and are eager to share them.  Children deserve to be taught by people who teach through positive example. 

"Consider:  How can we help children see the world is a place of goodness and unlimited possibilities if we experience it as dreary and stifling?  How can children trust us about the benefits of healthy eating and exercise if they don't choose to practice what we preach?  How will we help children learn the difficult art of conflict resolution if bitter conflicts in our own relationships remain unresolved?  How can we help children discover nature's gifts of joy and wonder if we rarely delight in those gifts ourselves?  And perhaps the hardest question of all:  How will we help children experience themselves as unconditionally loved and loving beings if we don't feel unconditionally loving toward ourselves?"
 

 

 

Guiding Behaviors Article

Guiding Behavior of Preschoolers
May 14, 2012 –Teaching Exchange

Childhood is the small town everyone came from.
-Garrison Keillor

Janet Gonzalez-Mena describes four approaches for guiding the behavior of preschool-age children in her article, "Lessons From My Mother-In-Law: A Story about Discipline," which is included in the Exchange Continuing Education Unit, "Managing Challenging Behaviors":

"Two approaches of mine have to do with helping the child connect rewards with good behavior.  They seem soft and sweet to those used to sterner discipline.

Two other approaches of mine aren't so soft and sweet — instead they are cut and dry, leaving all emotion out of the picture.  They may seem rather fake and inhuman to people used to a stern finger-shaking warning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children with Challenging Behaviors Article

 

 

In his article in the Exchange Essentials, "Children with Challenging Behavior," David Elkind compares two forms of discipline:  "instructive...which is a matter of teaching children social skills and attitudes," and "punitive, [which is] a matter of stamping out misbehavior through punishment."

"An example may help to make the difference between the two approaches concrete.  Suppose a child is acting up and disturbing the other children.  If we take the punishment perspective, we might use the time out technique and put the child in another room or in an area away from the other children.  Presumably this removal will teach the child to be less disruptive in the future.  If, on the other hand, we take an instructive position, we might have a time in .  That is, we might sit with the child and try to find out why she is upset.  It might be the case that the child had a right to be angry, that he was excluded from a playgroup, was called a name, or was pushed.  Once we have an idea of why the child was troubled, we have a much better chance of helping him to calm down and to rejoin the group.  In the time out, a child learns that her feelings are ignored, and therefore of no value.  A child given a time in, on the other hand, learns that his feelings are important and will be attended to.  Which child is more likely to act out again?"