Every day I come to the school, I witness little transformations.
All of us, even the most conservative in the room, want to see some kind of change in the world. But the longer we go through life, it's easy to think we've seen it all — or we will never see it. Or some people just won't ever make it.
With young children, though, change is always in front of you. Hopes turn into realities. And problems are often out in the open to be dealt with now, instead of referred to committee.
(Every lawmaking body should have a preschool on site, and each member should be required to spend one hour volunteering there for each hour they spend with a lobbyist.)
It's not as if all the change in the preschool is of the hopey kind, but on balance, it gives me enough hope that I keep coming back.
Here are some examples from today.
Nick. When I first met him, Nick was very shy and spoke in short, unintelligible strings of monosyllables, if he spoke at all. He held back from the morning group time, where the children take instruction directly from the teacher and learn how to behave in class. He'd play off by himself, missing both the skills and the impoortant socialization.
Testing indicated he qualified for all sorts of special education assistance. His mother reportedly had trouble getting her calls returned from the various programs, and Nick never did get into an outside program.
Today, when I arrive, he runs to greet me and throws his arms around me. I don't know what the policy is about kids kissing volunteers, but he broke it and I let him. He brought me a book about dinosaurs to read, and we sat down and immediately read three books.
This week, Nick tested as ready to progress to kindergarten.
Jesse. Jesse ran up at the same time, same enthusiastic reaction. Same lap for reading. A girl wanted to join in, but there was no room on the little couch. The conditions were ripe for a shoving match, tears, arguments over whose book to read.
Instead, Jesse and Nick helped the girl pull over a chair so she could sit next to the couch. I'd never seen the kids come up with that solution before.
Yesterday, I learned, Jesse had been a terror in class and was written up for all kinds of behavioral issues.
Twenty minutes later, he struck a teacher, spit at her repeatedly and bit her on the arm. One teacher had to attend him individually on a time out because he was being so disruptive to the classroom.
Eventually, he calmed down. At snack time, he spilled a bit of his milk, ran to the bathroom for a paper towel and cleaned it up — all without prompting. Something else I hadn't seen one of the kids do before.
Siri. She's a bright girl who stands out as the only blonde in class. She arrived late and acted unusually subdued in the group time. When kids were invited to tell what food smell they liked, she declined to answer. Later, as I was supervising the hand washing, she told me, "My mom brought me in sick."
Siri did look pale and a bit grey under eyes. She said she'd thrown up in her room and her mother had brought her in anyway because she had to go to work. Her mom told her that her dad would come pick her up.
Since the parents aren't supposed to leave sick children, I checked with the head teacher, who had been given a different story. However, she said, Siri is one I'd trust if they said that. She checked Siri's temperature while I dealt with the other kids. She sat morosely apart, waiting, I figured, for a parent to arrive.
Fifteen minutes later, she was her bright-eyed self. I was pretending, she said.
Next, she and another girl starting making up songs based on photos of space travel and the solar system. With each new card, Siri launched into a new melody and set of words to match the subject of the picture. Amazing, because the singing was very expressive and tuneful, and she was coming up with rhymes on the fly.
I don't know what any of this means in a cosmic sense or in terms of child psychology or the social effects of poverty.
But it means to me that we should not be too quick to judge, too slow to help, or too certain about what we think is right.
