EXPERTS

A memory from my childhood: every time I pass a snack bar I remember when my dad used to take me to the movies to watch Goofy and Uuno Turhapuro (a Finnish comedy character) on Sunday afternoons. I didn´t care so much of the Turhapuro films and either the sausages which were eaten after the movie, secretly from my mother. It was just so nice to go to the movies and keep a big secret (eating the sausages).

I think also my godfather was a great friend of the hot dogs, because after the congregation´s daycare he bought us a hot dog to split up and that wasn´t allowed to tell her wife, my godmother. My godmother was expecting us to get back and the food was ready, and we were terrible hungry after that hot dog…

Hello to all the European colleagues. I am leaving here my story even though more than a story, what i am leaving are my doubts and hesitation. HAVE YOU EVER HAD A GIFTED CHILD IN YOUR CLASS?. I have been reading a lot and i know they use to have a a very fluid language for their age, learn to read very quickly, have lots of insights for their age, are sensitive, loving and they have something difficult to explain. 2 years ago I had one child in 4 years which I believe was gifted, but his parents changed him in primary school and I have lost track.
My chief of studies told me that it was a very sensitive issue and that with such small children, it was better to let it go, she more or less told me that I should leave others to deal with “that problem”: let primary school teachers take care of it. I was worried about the fact that the sooner it is detected, the better for the child. I also know that it has to be diagnosed by qualified staff, it is very important to count on a clinic diagnose of specialised proffesionals.
My reflection is the following: we are hearing a lot about funding cuts, which it is true we have them, but it is not all about money. I believe that many times we teachers do not get involved as much as we should. I am not sure if Juan was gifted or less, but the attitude of “letting it go” is very common, it si not about money but of getting involved a bit more. I am not sure if when I was a child our teachers got more involved than nowadays, i do not remember (could it be child amnesia?) but i have the feeling that they did.
I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO GET BACK FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS HAD A GIFTED CHILD IN CLASS COULD SHARE HIS/HER EXPERIENCE, when and how it was diagnosed, how did they work in class, how t affected the other children... Thanks in advance.

 School bullying is a very common phenomenon these days and media talks lot of it. Will it ever end? Who knows. Hopefully, in our time of increasing knowledge and awareness, the problem is taking seriously, not just as project –thinking. Bullying leads to considerable suffering with those who become targets of it.

I became bullied at school, mostly during the elementary school years, but also during the secondary school years. Bullying meant discrimination, laughing (at my appearance), sometimes pushing or kicking. I can´t say why I was different. Was it the length or bigger size compared to others? Or was it shyness, the rich world of imagination or the other feature of me which irritated others? I don´t know. But nowadays, it doesn´t hardly matter at all. I´m still different compared to others, that´s a fact. Gradually, I have learned to see that being different is a value and all people those close to me are different as well. I´m not an exception - I´m good the way I am. But how hard it has been to believe that!

In the beginning when working with children my past was a problem. Practically that meant I couldn´t work among children even though I wanted. That was before I sorted things out in a therapy and before I was able to unleash my childhood traumas behind. The most difficult things for me at work have been 1) being an authority, 2) building up my self-confidence, 3) handling children´s laugh (because I felt children were laughing at me), 4) understanding children´s needs, 5) receiving critic and confessing my own mistakes at work. Surrounded by these problems it´s practically impossible to guide a group of children or to be an adult member of education community. Everyone who works the similar job can understand that. I can say that I´m proud of myself, and those problems has mostly gone and I can work among children. And I can claim that nowadays my experiences are my strengths which I wouldn´t change away. The soggy ground turned into personal/intellectual capacity, from where to get strength.

 In my childhood my grandparents often took care of me, as well as my aunt did. That time kindergartens were not so common, every child couldn`t get a place from the public day care. Although it isn´t always easy to get a day care place nowadays either because there are so many children who need a place. But I have wonderful memories of those easygoing days at my granny´s. In the morning I was taken to the granny´s and we ate breakfast together with my grandparents. Morning news came from the radio and grandmum made juice from fresh oranges. The breakfast followed always the same pattern and that gave me feeling of security. Even though my grandparents died decades ago, I can still remember how granny´s kitchen looked and smelt like.

I have been working as teacher for more than 40 years, but I could say that I have been a teacher all my life because when I was young I looked after my neighbors’ children for some coins. I did it by vocation, something that is disappearing. I’m retired now, and when I look back I think everything has deteriorated significantly because new generations have lost precisely what made me take care of my neighbors while my friends went to the park to hang out: the vocation.
Government employees have lost it: steady job, good pay, tedium, vacations, good timetable and above all the safety of having a secure job. Children will change, but the public teacher remains. In private education it’s different, working conditions are not as good and stability either. Deep down it doesn’t matter, they have lost their vocation.
As a professional in primary education, I reflect by telling my story. I remember my teacher Maruja who sang songs for us. The children nowadays will remember something called Sony, who plays the music in DVD. Technology can not replace us.
I'm not one of those who think that any past time was better, and I’m in favor of the logical evolution of society, but we lost the values along the way, values such as respect and admiration for teachers who have helped us to learn and become what we are today.

A friend of mine told me of this project about stories from childhood. Now that I've read a couple of the stories I've come to think about my own childhood. My grandmother lived in our house – we had a big house in the countryside – and after my grandfather had died, she moved into a room on the first floor. There she often sat in the evening, listening to the radio, knitting or reading. I often went to see her after dinner because I enjoyed being in her room. Mostly she'd start telling me about her life, and she'd had a long life, with much to tell. She had lived through two world wars, flight and expulsion, and two of her children had died really young. But still my grandmother didn't seem embittered. Instead she seemed kind, and she often smiled to herself when brushing up one of her memories. This is how I learned a lot about earlier times and these stories made a tremendous impression on me as a child.
Now I've been a nursery nurse at a large kindergarten for a few years and I've suggested having a story telling hour once a week, when we nurses and the children sit together, and whoever wants to can tell a story about something that has happened to them. The children, even the lively ones, are really quiet during these hours and listen attentively – and I always have to think of my grandmother, of how we used to sit together in her room in the evenings.
Marianne, 48, nursery nurse

 The age difference between me and my brother is only one year and a few days. As children, my mother had big problems with us, because we both wanted to be the first in everything – when bathing, eating, getting dressed... There was always a battle for the first place. One day, when my mother tried to calm us down, she said to my brother: “Let her be the first, ladies always go first.” Since then there was peace at home – I was always the first and my brother kept saying: “Ladies first.”

 When my daughter was six years old, she began telling stories about a donkey. Her donkey. Children usually tell stories, but it was just amazing how precise her descriptions were (how the donkey looks like, where it is, how she feeds him, watches over him, how she cleans him…). This lasted for a couple of months. She spoke of her donkey all of the time and it started to irritate us. We could not persuade her that the donkey is not real. One day a cousin came to visit us. She is six years older than my daughter. They had a fight because of the donkey. From this day she never mentioned her donkey again.

 In elementary school I had a classmate who was very smart, lazy, but very resourceful. We had to write an essay so the teacher could check whether we know how to use comers correctly. He decided not to bother with comas. He wrote an entire essay without using any comas. After the text he drew some 20 comas and added (“Use as needed.”). The teacher scolded him in front of the class, but still she couldn’t hide her smile. Children can be resourceful.

 In my neighbourhood a tragedy occurred. A very young dad died and his 5- year old son was left alone. This boy was something special – beautiful like an angel, very bright and chatty. I saw him many times with his father. They were really close. After father’s funeral I haven’t seen this boy for a few months.

When I first met him after the tragedy, he was alone. He waited for his mummy. Like usually, we talked to each other, even though it was really hard for me. I didn’t know how to act- like nothing happened, or should I ask him about his father. I chose the first option. In the middle of conversation the boy stopped speaking and asked me out of the blue: “Do you know my father died?” I went quiet for a moment. It took me by surprise. I asked him, if he misses him, but he pretended like he didn’t hear me and chatted on about his friends, his birthday… all of a sudden he quietly said:”Yes, I miss him. A lot.”

Then his mother came and our conversation ended. It is necessary to talk to children about the loss, dying and pain.

 In the framework of our education for pre-school educators, we visited a kindergarten. They introduced to us a group of kids aged 3 to 6. We were acquainted with their work-programme. Afterwards the children got the role of guides and showed us how they spend their days in the group. They took their role very seriously; they tried to show us as much as possible. They tried to explain how serious their work is and how they learn a lot.
They looked like small and serious adults. I was particularly impressed with a girl Larisa. She was only three years old. She stood out from the group because of her skills. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that although the room was small, they divided their place into different areas and in addition the children did not bother each other while playing. Larisa showed me how she can put together a fairly large jigsaw. She didn’t allow me to help. She raised her head high with pride and showed me how she can do it on her own. I discovered that even though she is a small girl, she can do a lot, if only she is allowed.