The Excursion

Our 5-month PLAYSCHOOL program officially started and as expected, we have nice students and 'not-so-nice’ students. One such student in the latter group is Izzy* a 3-year old bratinella whose habit is to make other people’s lives miserable.

Obviously, Izzy is spoiled, both by her parents. Her father is a businessman and her mother is a physician who is on-leave because of her second pregnancy. No wonder they enrolled Izzy in our program, brat as she is, she needs behavior modification before the birth of the new baby.

First and foremost, Izzy doesn’t want to be left by mommy, she wants mommy inside the play school, a practice which we greatly discourage as it contradicts the purpose of the program. So, we try to be firm about it. Unfortunately, Izzy’s mom is not as cooperative as we wish her to be. Instead of leaving Izzy to our care, she has the habit of showing herself to the little girl just when the girl is having fun. And sure enough, at the sight of her mother, Izzy would insist on having her inside disrupting the momentum of the entire class. And what more? Mommy would get inside the playschool and insist that Izzy doesn’t want her to go. The disappointed teacher, not wanting to embarrass the mother, would just keep quiet and focus on the other students.

Last week, the lesson was ‘proper use of escalator.’ The teacher got the students ready for a short visit to the nearest escalator to demonstrate how to ride it safely. As usual, Izzy wanted mommy to tag along. But teacher was firm. She gave Izzy 2 choices, either to leave mommy and go with them, or to stay with mommy and miss the demonstration. Izzy wanted to go, but she wanted mommy to go with her. Teacher said no and made the decision, they will leave Izzy behind. But every time they tried to leave, Izzy would start wailing and stomping her feet on the floor. So, Teacher would start convincing her again. This went on for a few minutes until Izzy’s classmates became restless. Now, Teacher really had no choice. One goodbye wave at Izzy and off she went with the class.

Izzy was crestfallen. She cried as if she wanted to die THEN AND THERE. So, mommy got up and led Izzy out of the school to where Teacher and classmates were having the demonstration. Once  again, Teacher’s purpose went down the drain..

How children would turn out depends on how the parents trained them in their formative years. If there is a chance to make them sensitive, considerate and responsible individuals, that chance is NOW while they are young. And one of the best ways to teach them is by being firm about rules and conditions.