Gavin McCormack posted an interesting article about teaching acceptance to children which certainly spoke to my beliefs.
McCormack stated that “To teach children the power of acceptance is one thing, but to allow them to live in a classroom where it’s part of the ethos, it’s an air you breathe and the water you drink, means that it must be part of who you are in your class.”
Acceptance works in a multitude of directions. It is not only about accepting those who are different, it’s about accepting and understanding everyone for whom they are.
Knowing that there are not right or wrong ways to be; some children are loud and some are quiet, some cry easily, others never.
You can be who you are, and people need to accept that. What that means is that you have some very powerful personality clashes in your classroom, differences, arguments and heated conversations.
Now isn’t that brilliant! I mean it’s great that their differences will show, they will have arguments and fall outs.
Be careful not to intervene. Allow the situation to be resolved by those in the middle of it, all the while understanding that we are all different and to accept this we must communicate, compromise and have empathy.
If we want to allow all students to develop essential skills then we must allow our children to be who they are, and promote that.
I do believe that in order for healthy discussions between our differences, we must also learn how to not take things personally when others disagree with our unique thoughts. As well, children must learn to respectfully disagree and debate. How beautiful and marvellous it would be if we could teach our children to have such healthy debates and conversations!
