Worry Wart

One of the things that was on my mind over the past few months was my frequent worry for the children in my class. I've not been worrying about their academic performance or their social skills, but something that is a little further from my control: climbing. How high they want to climb, where they want to climb and how many children want to climb on the same part of the climbing frame all at once. I have heard it before from parents that worry too much about their children and cushion their every move to make sure they do not get physically injured. Even more so since I have been teaching in Hong Kong, where parents worry about their children touching a little bit of mud when playing outdoors. Or prevent their child from playing in the playground near their house because of the dangers that might be involved.

Of course, as a trained practitioner I know that children need to be independent in their play and even experience minor injuries and learn from their mistakes. This is much easier said than done however. Particularly when one is watching from the sidelines as two, then three, then four children climb onto the same one meter length platform on the climbing frame, one meter above the ground, each trying to manoeuvre around the others to get to the other end. It is hard not to intervene and help children across, make sure they don't fall or push others. I would often stand behind them and shout out less then constructive things like “be careful”, “don't push others”, “there are too many people on here”, “somebody must come down”. But in the excitement of their play and enjoyment the children rarely listened, but also (thankfully) never fell either.

There came a time about 2 months ago when my worry hit a new high, when 6 children were literally scrambling over each other on this small platform and climbing up, or bending down to let others cross. Alongside my worry came a new emotion, pride. The children were learning new skills of problem solving and courtesy, physical skills and social skills all in one go. They had found a way to master the issues they faced on this little platform above the ground without my help.

I had almost resolved to let this one go until a few days later when one little girl lost her grip and fell that one meter to the ground and grazed her knee. She cried for a moment and after I cleaned up her knee I called the class to gather around. I asked some children to fetch all the dolls and teddy bears from the classroom and bring them outside. As they came back I asked them to line them up one by one on the small platform. After about 6 toys were lined up there was no space for any more so I asked them to put them wherever they could fit in. They put them on top of the toys and squeezed them in. This had the obvious effect, some of the toys fell down. We discussed how this platform was not big enough for a lot of children (or teddy bears) particularly if they all wanted to move across it to the other end. I asked the little girl that fell to recount her story and show children the plaster on her knee.

“What do you think we can all do about this, to make sure children don't fall off and hurt themselves again?”, I asked. After a bit of discussion and pointing in the right direction the class as a whole came to the conclusion that only 4 children should be allowed on the platform at one time, they cannot stay on there for a long time and should let others climb up once they have crossed to the other side. Children must wait on the ground if there are 4 children already on the platform.

The last couple of months I felt a weight had been lifted at playtime. The children really did obey the rules they came up with (sometimes with a few reminders from me) and they continued to use their problem solving skills to get themselves across the platform in one piece. I no longer felt I needed to stand by to catch falling children. On reflection it wasn't only the children that learnt from consequences and action, I had too. There's no point in spending energy worrying when simple solutions can make life easier and less nerve racking for teachers too. It is also helpful to remember that children are often much more capable then we think.