For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved kids. I blame it on my unwavering love for Peter Pan. The boy who never grows up inspired me to try to do the same. How? By surrounding myself with children. I’ve been prone to doing it since I was a kid myself, always trying to take care of those younger than me. I started babysitting at the ripe age of 10 years old, because obviously I was mature enough at this point to take care of others. Clearly.
I’ve since worked in a preschool, day care, and now spend my winter days teaching the little nuggets how to ski the mountain. In each of these jobs, I’ve had the responsibility of teaching the children something, be it the alphabet, animal sounds, how to slide down a slide, or how to push their little skis into the perfect pizza. And yet, I often times catch myself wondering if I’m the one doing the teaching, or the one being taught.
Kids have an indescribable way of giving their worldly knowledge, an inherent knowledge they’re unaware they even have. Much in the way I love the idea of a boy who can fly and never grows up, I’ve fallen in love with the idea that children have an innocent yet extensive knowledge about this world and our place within it. And so, I’ve compiled a list of things that teaching children has taught me.
The first thing anyone who works with children learns is patience. They say patience is a virtue, and it’s a virtue that if you don’t have when you start working with children you surely will by the end of your experience. Of course there’s the simple patience you have to practice when handling the breakdowns that are undoubtedly going to happen. Just like Tinker Bell, kids have a lot of emotions to fit into those little bodies, and without fail there will be moments when all of the sudden those emotions are going to just flood out of them.
But there’s another way in which they’ve taught me patience. While interacting with children, I’ve found myself constantly reminded that they process the things around them at a slower rate than we do. The reason being not that they’re not as developed, but that they’re absorbing everything around them, something adults tend to subconsciously avoid as they only take in what is necessary. While our processing method is efficient, kids have taught me to appreciate slowing down and taking in everything around me.
Imagination. While it’s perhaps obvious or expected it is extremely underrated in my eyes. The amount of times I’ve been transported to another planet, suddenly accompanied by a friendly monster, or flying down the hill instead of skiing can no longer be counted. And I’ll be damned if the world isn’t 1000x more intriguing with just a pinch more imagination. If I haven’t been taught, I’ve at least been reminded in time working with children that we all have that untouched brimming imagination hiding somewhere within each of us. I try to apply this imagination to my day to day life now, and can say contentedly that even my daily walks to class have become much more entertaining.
Perhaps, the most invaluable thing I have learned in my time working with children is perspective. Kids have this untouched innocence about them. They are often accepting, unbiased, and untouched by society’s corrupt tendrils. They’re humanity is untainted, still fully intact. This is not to say that they don’t occasionally say rude or inappropriate things to others, but they don’t do it out of hate or spite, and they don’t direct it towards one certain person just because of who they are. They’re reactions, even the negative ones, are never discriminatory. They have simple answers to worldly problems because they can’t imagine people doing things for the wrong reason. While often times this perspective can come across naïve, I find it beautiful.
One of my favorite things I’ve learned in my time teaching kids is to appreciate the little things in life. You can give a child a pinecone, and they will look at it as if it’s the most amazing object in the universe. I say this from experience of actually giving a three year old a pinecone which I couldn’t get him to put it down for the next three hours. I’ve laid down in the snow and found a story unfolding in the clouds above me, as pointed out by a four year old. And I’ve stopped to admire the outstanding height of a pine tree I’d never noticed with a seven year old. Since working with kids I’ve found myself stopping several times and noticing something new about a place I’ve been to at least 100+ times, and suddenly the world seems so much bigger and exciting again.
Finally, the most beautiful thing I’ve learned from being around children is love is unconditional. Kids give love so easily, even if it’s unreturned. Each child I’ve had the fortune of being around in my life has shown this outstanding capability for compassion and loving others, sometimes just by smiling. And at the end of the day, love is what really counts.
So while the children I’ve worked with have left me with some new skills or information, I’ve left them with refreshed or new knowledge regarding life. I won’t lie; working with children ages your body, but it keeps your mind and soul in Neverland flying around with good ole’ Peter Pan. What more could I ask for?