Your thoughts and words

I loved this vídeo about a teacher in Israel who says,

"Teachers, headmasters, educators, your thoughts and the words that you use about a child will at some stage become the thoughts and words that the child thinks about himself."

This is exactly why the thought of putting Addie in a school here sends a chill up my spine. It's true, perhaps I just had bad experiences in Portuguese schools and I'm sure there are good teachers and (possibly?) good schools here. But I have yet to meet the Portuguese teacher who has this kind of "opposite" treatment with a problem child. Who tells him he is good and smart and well-behaved, and helps him become that way, instead of telling him the opposite and sometimes even verbally abusing him. Unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating. I've seen sad scenes with small children. And I've yet to see the school system here that promotes this kind of opposite treatment, instead of solidifying the stereotype the child already has. What bothers me most in schools here are the completely unnecessary meetings teachers have in every grade level where they "talk" about students. Past teachers tell new teachers about the students they will have, which ones are problematic, etc. When studies have shown that this kind of "passing on of information" only causes assumptions and stereotypes in teachers that influence how they treat their students. These meetings for me are pure crap-talking and totally non-Christian.

Anyway. This is also the kind of thinking I try to remind myself of as a mother and as my children's primary educator. The thoughts and words I use about them and also about the world will MOLD them. Huge responsibility. Reminds me of the other day when I said "what the heck?!" and Addie spend the rest of the evening yelling "what the heck?!" Luckily, she hasn't repeated anything worse yet.:P