If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?
There was an old hamster wheel in our classroom. Most of the children had no idea what it was, but it was nevertheless an endlessly popular plaything. Someone was forever spinning it or turning it upside down to roll on the floor or otherwise employing it in their games. Over the years, I saw it used as a part of block castles, as a bulldozer in the sensory table, as a Ferris wheel for little people, as a play dough tool, and as a way to apply paint to paper. One boy spent weeks using it as a kind of impromptu puzzle, taking it apart, then putting it back together again.
Over the years, I watched hundreds of children play with it for the first time. They would mess with it for a few minutes, quickly figuring out that they could spin it, then take it from there, employing it in an endless variety of ways. In nearly two decades of playing with the hamster wheel, not a single child, ever, asked "What is this thing?" On occasion, however, a well-intended adult would take it upon themselves to provide this information. "You know what that is?" they would ask, "It's a hamster wheel," and then proceed to go into detail CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?
Over the years, I watched hundreds of children play with it for the first time. They would mess with it for a few minutes, quickly figuring out that they could spin it, then take it from there, employing it in an endless variety of ways. In nearly two decades of playing with the hamster wheel, not a single child, ever, asked "What is this thing?" On occasion, however, a well-intended adult would take it upon themselves to provide this information. "You know what that is?" they would ask, "It's a hamster wheel," and then proceed to go into detail CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: If it's Belittling to Do This to Adults, Isn't it Also Belittling to Children?
