Fantastic day
Je bent als de aarde / Je wilt het me geven
Alle dagen / Van dit mooie leven
Ik wacht en zie je open bloeien / Ik zie je stralen in de zon
In de regen zal je groeien / Ik wacht en zie je open bloeien
Ik zei toch dat ik wachten kon / Ik zie je stralen in de zon
...if you'll forgive me. Says it all.
Spent today attending two courses run by Joy Lubawy; well worth giving up a Saturday for. She's erudite, credible, and best of all passionate. High-fly theorist/speaker/expert *whatever*, she's come from the floor, and her heart's still bloody well there. She talked about the job as, essentially, "to grow people", and demonstrated with every bloody word that she knew EXACTLY what that meant. Crikey yes. YesyesyesyesYES. She gets it. We're just the tools THEY use to nudge awake who they've got it in them to be; it's so fucking so fucking SO not about churning out a set of spec-meeting Little Puppies programmed with agreed behaviours or "competencies" (and yes, I'm going to wash my mouth out for that).
Aw man XD She's a *believer*, not always a good thing :) but in this case one who's bloody well *done it* and *made it work*, and made it work *consistently and demonstrably* and ... oh, I don't know. The absolute best thing about today isn't so much new information or ideas, but the fact I've walked out thinking not just yes, I'm on the right track here, but yes, I'm doing what I do the way I do for the right bloody reasons, I'm working for people I believe have the right philosophy and approach, and yes, I STILL WANT TO DO IT.
Means a very great deal after the last few weeks; I've not posted here about it, but some of the issues around a couple of Challenging Children and the (possibly erroneous or possibly just down to a growing depression on my part) feeling that the way certain persons have - with the best of intentions - begun handling them means they've been given up on at some level, that TPTB have just accepted - or have begun to find the possibility of accepting, which is just as bad - that one in particular is destined for the Too Hard/Bad Puppy pipe and that's that and we may as well just sit it out until we can hand him over to school (where, given the nature of his needs and modern funding, he's very likely to drown or be medicated into oblivion)... well, what with one thing and another I've been very up and down. Not just about him, but one thing feeds into another and I've been having a very big argument with myself about whether I'm going to stay at the Centre or not, stay on the hours I'm doing or not, or even stay in the biz at all. Very down at the moment.
But know what? Fuck that.
THANK YOU JOY LUBAWY. Because I love my job. And I feel reassured that I'm in the right place, doing the right thing, as best I can :) Letting the downers push me out means *I've* given up on Mr ADHD/ODD too. And I ain't 'aving that, guv.
The two staff members I most respect were there today too... :) plus another who's moved on but has a chance to influence a New Centre. This bodes well. Mind you, so was RAH and her unshakeable belief that several (documentable by the rest of us) years' worth of sitting on her arse, not interacting with children and then complaining about how hard the job is equals a work history of "active, available, interested participation in the emergent curriculum". But I digress.
Bought two books... one on developing a preschool science curriculum (is explicitly mai job nao - apparently Knowing About Computers and letting the 5yos play with batteries makes me some kind of boffin (!); another on crisis management for Children With Issues (everything from pet death to bereavement, illness, abuse etc...); curriculum ideas, safe spaces, behaviour management or amelioration etc. Hope there's something in there about Jailed Parents Getting Out :(
Factoid of the day: apparently the number of bone breaks and other significant injuries among children aged 7-8 has risen noticeably in recent years. Joy said people are starting to think it's because of the "Stick Nazis" :) which is to say proponents of the kind of thinking that says god forbid your Speshul Little Prince(ss) should do or play with Things That Could Hurt Them (like sticks or pens or real balls or trees or ZOMG each other). So they never learn what *can* hurt, what *does* hurt, or how to work around that, etc. How can you know what "safe" is, if you don't experience and understand "dangerous"?
An 8yo in a tree for the first time *ever* is an accident waiting to happen, y/y? Interesting.
Other Good Things: 7digital is flogging Sleepwalking Through the Mekong for five quid. Gorgeous mix of Dengue Fever and original Khmer artists. Consider this a definite pimp :)
===
Alle dagen / Van dit mooie leven
Ik wacht en zie je open bloeien / Ik zie je stralen in de zon
In de regen zal je groeien / Ik wacht en zie je open bloeien
Ik zei toch dat ik wachten kon / Ik zie je stralen in de zon
...if you'll forgive me. Says it all.
Spent today attending two courses run by Joy Lubawy; well worth giving up a Saturday for. She's erudite, credible, and best of all passionate. High-fly theorist/speaker/expert *whatever*, she's come from the floor, and her heart's still bloody well there. She talked about the job as, essentially, "to grow people", and demonstrated with every bloody word that she knew EXACTLY what that meant. Crikey yes. YesyesyesyesYES. She gets it. We're just the tools THEY use to nudge awake who they've got it in them to be; it's so fucking so fucking SO not about churning out a set of spec-meeting Little Puppies programmed with agreed behaviours or "competencies" (and yes, I'm going to wash my mouth out for that).
Aw man XD She's a *believer*, not always a good thing :) but in this case one who's bloody well *done it* and *made it work*, and made it work *consistently and demonstrably* and ... oh, I don't know. The absolute best thing about today isn't so much new information or ideas, but the fact I've walked out thinking not just yes, I'm on the right track here, but yes, I'm doing what I do the way I do for the right bloody reasons, I'm working for people I believe have the right philosophy and approach, and yes, I STILL WANT TO DO IT.
Means a very great deal after the last few weeks; I've not posted here about it, but some of the issues around a couple of Challenging Children and the (possibly erroneous or possibly just down to a growing depression on my part) feeling that the way certain persons have - with the best of intentions - begun handling them means they've been given up on at some level, that TPTB have just accepted - or have begun to find the possibility of accepting, which is just as bad - that one in particular is destined for the Too Hard/Bad Puppy pipe and that's that and we may as well just sit it out until we can hand him over to school (where, given the nature of his needs and modern funding, he's very likely to drown or be medicated into oblivion)... well, what with one thing and another I've been very up and down. Not just about him, but one thing feeds into another and I've been having a very big argument with myself about whether I'm going to stay at the Centre or not, stay on the hours I'm doing or not, or even stay in the biz at all. Very down at the moment.
But know what? Fuck that.
THANK YOU JOY LUBAWY. Because I love my job. And I feel reassured that I'm in the right place, doing the right thing, as best I can :) Letting the downers push me out means *I've* given up on Mr ADHD/ODD too. And I ain't 'aving that, guv.
The two staff members I most respect were there today too... :) plus another who's moved on but has a chance to influence a New Centre. This bodes well. Mind you, so was RAH and her unshakeable belief that several (documentable by the rest of us) years' worth of sitting on her arse, not interacting with children and then complaining about how hard the job is equals a work history of "active, available, interested participation in the emergent curriculum". But I digress.
Bought two books... one on developing a preschool science curriculum (is explicitly mai job nao - apparently Knowing About Computers and letting the 5yos play with batteries makes me some kind of boffin (!); another on crisis management for Children With Issues (everything from pet death to bereavement, illness, abuse etc...); curriculum ideas, safe spaces, behaviour management or amelioration etc. Hope there's something in there about Jailed Parents Getting Out :(
Factoid of the day: apparently the number of bone breaks and other significant injuries among children aged 7-8 has risen noticeably in recent years. Joy said people are starting to think it's because of the "Stick Nazis" :) which is to say proponents of the kind of thinking that says god forbid your Speshul Little Prince(ss) should do or play with Things That Could Hurt Them (like sticks or pens or real balls or trees or ZOMG each other). So they never learn what *can* hurt, what *does* hurt, or how to work around that, etc. How can you know what "safe" is, if you don't experience and understand "dangerous"?
An 8yo in a tree for the first time *ever* is an accident waiting to happen, y/y? Interesting.
Other Good Things: 7digital is flogging Sleepwalking Through the Mekong for five quid. Gorgeous mix of Dengue Fever and original Khmer artists. Consider this a definite pimp :)
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