Monday, August 27, 2012

Passion

One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.
-E. M. Forster

Often, long stretches of time go by before I think to update this portion of my blogging life.  Until today I haven't really wondered much about it, just accepted it.  I know that I sometimes feel like I have nothing to share, nothing special to say and that keeps me from posting because no one likes a rambler.

But you know what?

If I'm rambling about something I'm passionate about, does it really matter?

I had a realization today that maybe I need to stop thinking about WHAT I want to be when I grow and more about WHO I want to be when I grow up.  After a lengthy conversation tonight with a parent about trends in early childhood education and my background of being from Wisconsin (Go, Pack, Go!), he ended by asking where I thought I might "end up."  It caught me a little off-guard.  I truly hope to never feel a sense of ending within my career as it would signify the end of my passion, the snuffing out of my flame.

My goal in life is really to be a warrior, an advocate, a role model for early childhood education, developmentally appropriate practices, and infant & toddler development.  As the Site Director of an infant/toddler center, I've come to realize just how little people know about the development of our youngest learners.  Today, we had a monitor from a funder auditing our files and when she heard an infant crying for more than 1 minute, she insisted that she go into that classroom to "help."  I totally just used air quotes there because her great contribution to the situation was this:  "Well doesn't she have a pacifier?"

I began to explain that today is Monday and it can be tough sometimes.  Her candid response was, "Well, babies shouldn't have Mondays."  Ma'am, unless you've somehow magically reworked the calendar and not shared this news with the world, all humans have Mondays.  Infants are human beings.  And after spending the weekend at home with those she loved and being no-doubt held and cuddled all weekend, one can assume that the first day back to the classroom environment (regardless of the day of the week) might be stressful.  Suddenly, there are other children with their needs being met before the teacher might be able to cuddle me.  My teachers are phenomenal at what they do and I have no doubt that this child was not in danger, not being neglected, likely not even being denied any form of verbal attention -- she simply wanted to be held.  She was overtired.  She had her diaper changed and was ready for sleep.  

I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when the grown people forget that those cute, cuddly, warm little beings in their world, in their vicinity, in their arms is in fact a human being with the full range of emotions and needs as an adult.  They simply don't have the words yet to share those needs and emotions.

But seriously, if you've indeed found a way to eradicate Monday, please send me a quick email... I'm all ears.

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