Children have this ridiculously sensitive radar when it comes to spotting hypocrisy. So when I tell off my tuition kids for eating in class when they shouldn't, that of course means I have to let my apple oxidise on the table for another hour while my stomach growls in protest.
It also means I need to yell at girls who eat in class just as much as the guys who eat in class or be accused of 'sexism' and lots of 'oOoOOOOoOoooOO-ing' from all over the room. Twelve year olds.
It's not about the eating though - it's the attitude. With it, I cannot deal. I had my many bratty moments as a kid/tween/teen/even now but finding myself increasingly hypocritical in the way I deal with those bursts of bad attitude.
Every time a child feels misunderstood by their parent or teacher or some form of adult, they should write down exactly how they feel and how they think it could've been dealt with. It should be a mandatory universal manual. Even now, all my past instances are becoming hazier and hazier as I revert to the traditional 'adult' method of dealing with my students which I hate. There's a quote I once read and I can't believe I haven't been able to google it on the internet, but it goes something like...
"Children live in a world surrounded by a ten-foot wall, and adults only have five-foot ladders."
Work on closing the gaps everywhere.
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