Clarissa's Blog

“Mommy, I love my fifth-grade teacher,” said Klara. “She is so much better than the teacher we had in fourth grade. She allows me to think.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I finish an assignment early, I like to sit and think, but Mrs. G hated it. She said I was wasting my time.”

This is both dumb and completely unpedagogical. One of the basic rules of engaging with children is that you don’t interrupt them when they are deep in thought. Unless the house is on fire, if you see that a child is thinking, you go very quiet and do everything to ensure that they are not interrupted. The capacity to be alone with your thoughts is the foundation of mental health. The capacity to concentrate deeply on your thoughts is the foundation of intellectual growth. I have no idea how it is possible to spend 30 years teaching elementary school and fail to hear about this basic precept of pedagogy. I am shocked by this discovery more than by any of the woke stuff that this teacher did.

The thing I found the hardest about being a mother is that when my daughter was little, she would interrupt my train of thought. It feels like you’re being hit over the head. Obviously, I never blamed the child because children are little and they deserve their mother’s undivided attention. When I would see her sitting quietly and thinking, I would give praise to the Lord because I can think of no skill more important that I can foster in her as a mother. There is simply no better indicator of psychological health than enjoying being immersed in your own inner world.

If you have an issue with a student who likes to sit there quietly thinking her own thoughts after completing her task, you need to have your head examined.

This teacher also had a problem with children reading or drawing while they waited for others to complete their tasks. Instead, she wanted students to do additional math worksheets, which predictably made them hate math.

If you are going to be a teacher, it might make sense to read a couple of books on child psychology and child development. If you’re a parent of a small child, please remember that the most important thing your child can be doing is learning to think and engage in imaginative play. I still remember the moment when Klara first engaged in imaginative play. She grabbed two rubber duckies and started pretending that they were talking to each other. I went completely still. I had tears in my eyes because this was such a crucial moment in her development. It doesn’t matter when they learn to read or write. It doesn’t matter what grades they get. Children need to play both with other kids and by themselves. They are not being lazy or unproductive. They are instinctively doing the most important thing that they should be doing.