Once during a staff meeting, the teachers were complaining about their heavy
teaching load and asked me, as principal, if I could eliminate playground duty
from their schedules. I responded by proposing that their weekly hour in the
playground is perhaps their best opportunity, as educators, to truly get to know
their pupils. In the classroom, the children are directed by an adult teacher as
to what to do or not to do, what to learn and how to learn it. Only in the
playground will you see one child acting out his dream to be a pilot, and
another group of children playing judge and jury. Only at the playground will
you get a true glimpse of their imagination.
Children are blessed with a natural ability to believe in themselves and to
imagine great accomplishments for their future lives. They have not had enough
bad past experiences to limit their belief in what they are capable of
achieving. Their future is not limited by their past -- only by how far their
imagination can take them.
All too often, when a child comes to us and tells us about his dreams and
aspirations, we dampen it with our own cynicism. Interestingly enough, that's
not the approach we take when, for example, our child is learning to walk or
talk. Even if the child did not pronounce the word properly, or she took a few
steps and fell down, we wouldn't criticize her and say, "Why, that's not how
that word is pronounced at all! And what a way to walk! Oh, you'll never walk or
talk properly." Rather, we encourage her to keep trying by making a big deal out
of every word or step she takes. We understand that the more we encouraged her,
the harder she will try and the greater her achievements will be.
We should take the same approach to a child's inner life. We should nurture
his dreams and encourage her imagination regardless of the fact that it is not
yet perfect. For such encouragement will help them achieve far beyond what they
would otherwise be capable of achieving.
And it's not just good parenting -- we'll gain from it too. Standing in the
playground and watching our children at play can turn out to be a useful source
of encouragement for us adults, as well. Most adults do not pursue their life's
dreams -- perhaps because they are too afraid of failure, perhaps because they
do not believe enough in their own capabilities. If we took a closer look at our
children and learned from them how to imagine and believe, we, too, could
reach much greater heights than ever imagined.
Try it -- it works!
