Читать книгу Can I Go and Play Now? - Greg Bottrill - Страница 13

Children don’t need adults who are only there because they didn’t know what else to do in life; they don’t need adults who are only there because they see themselves on a career ladder; they don’t need adults who merely have good intentions; and they certainly don’t need adults who can only think like an adult. Children need you to listen, to watch, to participate – you as an adult literally need to get down with the kids.

You cannot access the real world of children if you cannot or are unwilling to do this. All too often we see teachers entering the profession with personal ambition or with the lack of integrity to stop for one moment and question or challenge what it is we are doing with children day in and day out. Increasingly, the obsession with MATs and Ofsted-driven outcomes blinds us as adults – we are being led on a merry dance by a piper who calls the tune but is somehow playing a broken pipe. The blanket approach based on accountability and outcomes completely misses the true and richer nature of childhood, of child development. It closes its ears to the child’s voice and instead blah-blahs over the top of it until it is drowned out. The child has to be at the centre of our thinking, of our nurturing, and for this to truly happen then we must put metaphorical masking tape over our mouths, prick up our ears and listen.