I majored in Elementary Education. This was chosen, though, almost on a whim. The wonderful horrible thing about a liberal arts education is that you take classes in everything under the sun and then have to choose something to stick with. Well. I was having a hard time.
I can’t say I always wanted to be a teacher. But I also can’t deny that either. My favorite game to play as a kid was “school.” My sister and I played this a lot. And guess who was usually the teacher? I never really gave the idea of teaching as a job much thought though. Because…well…it seemed beneath me. I was destined for better things. Whatever that was.
I think I liked pretending to teach for one of the same reasons I liked eventually teaching for real: I got to be in charge. I really, really, really like being in charge. I really, really, really don’t like it when other people are in charge. Ten years ago, I didn’t see this as a weakness. But now I’m older and wiser. And I see this is not my favorite character trait. Every year, in the spring, I get a phone call asking me to be on the Board of Directors for my kids’ school. And every year I say no. I say I’m too busy, not qualified, whatever. But the truth is I can’t be on the board because I know what would happen if I were. I’d want to be in charge. Of everything. And I’d hack people off like it was nobody’s business. (I also think I’d make dramatic changes for the better…but that’s beside the point.)
So anyway, back to college. I took a class in Ed Psych, because I thought it sounded interesting. And it was. But part of the class required me to spend 10 hours observing in classrooms in local elementary schools. And when I did that, two things happened. #1 The controlling, obsessive thing kicked into high gear. Oh my gosh! Why is she doing that? I wouldn’t do it that way! I would do it so much better…Are those grammatical errors on her newsletter? Egads! and #2 Those kids. Damn cute kids. I really liked being with them. A lot. Like I almost got a high from it. And if I helped one of them with something? Oh baby. That was icing on the cake.
Still, it didn’t occur to me to actually choose that as a major. Until the night before we had to turn in the form and I had to fill out something. And that’s what I did. Because, in part, I thought I’d learn stuff that would helpful down the road when I was a parent.
And I was right. I did learn stuff – both in my college classes and in my elementary classes I taught, that is helpful to me as a parent. Though the greatest points I learned came from watching other parents I encountered. What they did right, and what they did wrong. Oh, man. The things I swore I’d never do when I had kids of my own. And now looking back, what a better teacher I would make with parenting experience under my belt. I think I would be a bit more understanding about the lack of communication between child and parents when it comes to school stuff. (This was something I never got as a teacher. What do you mean you didn’t understand you needed to send this back in? Didn’t your child explain this to you?)
You can stop laughing now.
Certainly the education major comes in handy in homeschooling. Now I do NOT think that you have to be a certified teacher to homeschool your kids. Heck no. But it makes your job a whole lot easier, that’s for sure. And, as I was explaining to someone last week, it means you don’t need to purchase a curriculum of any sort. Because you have boxes and boxes of stuff. Trust me.
So this post was inspired because today we had a little homework ‘incident.’ I was on the couch listening to 7 year old read, while Daddy was on the floor with 5, using word tiles to make silly sentences with him. Only Daddy was doing it all W-R-O-N-G. He was wanting 5 to sound out every word on the tiles. Which clearly he was not ready for. And plus, as anyone knows, some words can’t be sounded out.
So the right way (ahem…MY way) to do this was to let him read the words he can read and read for him the words that he can’t. Not only does this make common sense, but most importantly it prevented 5 from getting frustrated and made the whole thing seem like silly fun instead of work. It was the difference between this activity lasting for 5 minutes versus 30. Why couldn’t he see that? Hello!?!?
So from my spot on the couch, I kept interrupting 7 to coach Daddy on all the 42 things he’s doing wrong. Before I finally gave up and scooted down to the floor to model for him how 5 and I had played the game the day before. And after this whole scene was over, I continued to lecture Daddy on why my way was best. Because he needs to be challenged and stretched in his reading…but just a little bit. Like a rubber band. Too much and he will snap.
And I was getting really frustrated that Husband didn’t see things my way. The obvious way. The common sense way. Until Husband kindly pointed out to me that he had never taught anyone how to read before. That he had no idea what he was doing. That these things I thought were ‘common sense’ were really skills I had acquired along the way
Oh.
This sounds dumb. But I really hadn’t thought of it that way before. Oh.
So anyway, today I guess I’m grateful for the college major choice on a whim. Because I do think it has come in handy on the Mommy front. And it certainly has made homework less stressful. (At least when I do it myself.)
