Heart4kidsadvocacyforum's Blog

What does it take and whom must you be to serve children as their teacher?

You must be a good listener- being open and receptive to other’s opinions and cultural values.

Listening attentively and actively is a challenge for adults.  You can just imagine how intentional parents and teachers have to be in listening to what their children are expressing, especially for teachers with a classroom full of children needing attention sometimes all at the same time.  There is a lot of forethought and creating strategies of what your protocol is going to be so as to avoid mayhem.  We have to be so focused when we are working or attending to children.  Communication is sacred because we cannot just rely on words as a way of understanding what a child needs and what they are feeling.  This is the time real bonding takes place.  This is the time we as adults parenting and teaching children have to be very open and creative in interpretating what is being conveyed in their conversation with us. 

These conversations with children hold a lot of keys about how they communicate and how we can develop a communication code with them.  There are so many elements involved in developing a communication relationship with children.   Some of the elements that we have to be sensitive to are being cognizant of the environment. If the environment is chaotic and loud it might stifle the medium of communicating.  Body language and tonality of the voices in the stream of communication can also impact the viability of the conversation.    This challenge of listening and communicating with each other is not something that ends when they have developed enough vocabulary to express themselves, it is a constant through the teenage years and sometimes depending on the fabric and texture of the relationship it can be a lifetime of trying to communicate with someone in an effective and healthy way. 

The beauty in learning to communicate with children is all the nuisances that are involved in the experience and how absolutely amazing the relationship can be when they trust you with their most precious and sacred feelings and ideas.   It is a privilege to be considered someone in which children feel they can communicate and confide in.  Some one that will take them seriously and pay attention to them in a genuine and authentic way.  Children are such a magnificent gift and to be honored to be in their presence and be in tune with the “Spiritual essence” of who children are is unlike any relationship or experience you can have.  Take the necessary time and investment of intention to get to a place where you are seen by children as a safe place to open their minds and hearts to and you will be wealthier than any billionaire.