How do you like working in a pre-school?

The Question: So, how do you like working in a preschool?
  Recently, I left my 11-year career as a high school Social Studies teacher to help my wife start up her new preschool. The above question has been frequently asked. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it feels like this question is loaded, like "Isn't this a big step backwards?"
  Answer #1: I'm more of a part-time pre-school teacher.
  I'm the school Manager (for lack of a better title). I love the change of "job" largely because it lets me do a variety of tasks on a daily basis: fix things up, sit on my couch with my laptop or participate in the classroom. I'm simultaneously HR department, accountant, building supervisor and, the subject of the question, the #1 substitute teacher.
Answer #2: I wouldn't have done this had I not already realized that, at its core, teaching is the same at all ages. 

  Rule 1 in any classroom environment is that the kids must feel safe, physically and mentally. During all of the fun parts of teaching, we have to remember that the biggest part, the base of Maslow's famous pyramid refers to physical well-being. For high-schoolers and preschoolers alike, they have to get enough sleep, eat well and feel appreciated before other lessons begin having an impact.

  So many kids are so on the edge about this, and this is not just a poverty-related issue. Even well-to-do kids who seemingly have it all may be neglected by their parents: both parents work late, with an endless stream of cousins, baby-sitters and nannies spending more time with kids than mom and/or dad. Or, maybe mom and dad are home every night, but the kids are plopped in front of a TV or constantly play video games. (I recently saw a picture of a 2-year-old playing a war-simulation video game in the lap of a parent… ergh.) It's no surprise that school is often the warmest, safest, lovingest place for a child to be.
  Answer #3: Montessori practices are completely in line with what I wanted to do in my high school classroom.

  Very quickly after I met Lulu, I realized that what she was doing with preschoolers aligned perfectly what I was doing with high schoolers. Creating an open, safe classroom, teaching communication skills and letting students choose the way they work were all components of both of our classrooms. (I won't get into not being allowed to go further down that road. Not for today, at least.)
   A couple of weeks ago, a UT professor came to visit the school, interesting in enrolling his son a year from now. I asked him what he already knew about Montessori. After a pause, he replied "Project-based learning." The answer took me by surprise, but it is spot-on.
  In the larger picture, in which I truly believe that project-based learning is the future of education, a Montessori school ideally prepares young children for the choices, personal responsibility and interpersonal relations that will enable them to succeed working with others later in their educational and professional lives.
  So, the final answer: I love being a part of this Montessori classroom, and I want to make it as good as it possibly can be.

Oh So Comfortable

One of my favorite childhood memories was playing Risk with my Dad and Uncles--often on New Years Eve or other holidays. This is a game where there are long stalemates, until a player reaches a threshhold where the odds are in their favor, or maybe they're just bored, and they make a risky decision. Perhaps they go on the attack or fail to defend a position and they gain or lose a lot very quickly. Ultimately everyone is defeated except for one vanquisher.
 
This is life: you can sit back and watch momentum build up around you, or you can go out the door and get a piece of that pie yourself.
 
Risk-taking has so many contexts, and it has everything to do with the extent to which you trust in the world. If you don't trust your neighbors, you have no problem pissing them off. In NYC I watched youths take risks because they thought they had nothing better to live for: jaywalking in really dangerous places or buying guns and pulling stupid pranks  (here is Austin's version). In a country where you're likely to die of AIDS anyways, why not have unsafe sex? In a war-torn country where a 12-year-old might get recruited into an army if he stays in the village, it makes sense to sign up for Al-Quaeda, with promises of the glory of battle and eternal life with virgins. All of these are youths who feel that there's not much worth living for and therefore make decisions that do not benefit the larger community.
 
On the other hand, if you trust that things will work out, you sit back and let things take care of themselves. A politician in a safely-gerrymandered district or early in a six-year Senate term also has little to lose from outlandish political views or poor life choices.

Stick your neck out! ©Rick Weller 2011

Economists have always sought to quantify risk in the risk-vs-reward context. Investors frequently risk millions of dollars on a product that people will want--knowing that the odds of losing all of the money are significant. The hope of a large reward is worth the risk. In the end, if people demand the product, then inherently the world will be better off. These decisions are made in the same metric used by kids of the Bronx or Somalia.

Graham Green said that "it is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself." Is risk-taking a matter of not involving others? A go-it-alone attitude? If you Trust in God do you just sit back and not take risks?

I, for one, want to get out and make the world a better place, but this hammock is so damn comfy....