Nursery Child and Early Childhood
Nursery Child and Early Childhood
Nursery classes are what some branches of educational schools call the “Angel Classes.” This age is characterized by the following matters:
1- The amazing ability to memorize:
The child has a white, virgin memory that can receive a very large amount of information, in which everything can be imprinted. This is unlike adults whose memory is occupied with many matters and does not have the ability to absorb much.
According to the opinion of one of the educational scholars, who said that the child in the first four years of his life memorizes a complete dictionary, because he began with nothing of the vocabulary of language, then started to know hundreds of words that he uses to express all the needs of his life.
Therefore, the duty of the teacher toward the child at this age is to give him the greatest possible amount of memorization, whether teaching him the Lord’s Prayer, or “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” or hymns, or tunes, or verses from the Bible.
At this age, it does not matter to the child whether he understands what he memorizes or not. Generally, he does not perceive many of the meanings of what he memorizes, but he is able to memorize, and he may like the music of what he memorizes.
It is not permissible for the teacher to belittle the mentality and abilities of young children and refrain from giving them something to memorize. If he refrains from this, they will fill their memory with memorizing other things—from the home, from friends, from the radio and television, and from chants and songs, etc.
By this, the teacher would have missed for the children the opportunity of memorization, and when they grow up they will not find the same ability. Alongside the ability to memorize, the child of this stage is distinguished by another characteristic, which is submission and acceptance.
2- Submission and acceptance:
The child at this age accepts everything that is said to him and submits to it without discussion or argument. Therefore, his age is among the most suitable periods of life in which doctrines, principles, and values are planted.
Later on, if he asks or seeks understanding or argues at a more advanced age, this will be on the basis of a firm foundation of stable faith that has existed in him since his early childhood.
It is not beneficial for the teacher to waste this opportunity for the child and stuff his mind with trivialities that do not benefit, belittling his mentality and abilities. This does not mean presenting complex doctrines to him; rather, simple faith in simple words, which the child receives and memorizes, and then at a later age their depths are explained to him.
3- Imagination:
Among the characteristics of this age also is the breadth of imagination, and love for stories spoken by animals, birds, fish, flowers, and the forces of nature. He accepts them and loves them. At this age, a story such as Balaam’s donkey can be given; he does not argue about it, nor about the rest of the miracle stories that require submission, which his imagination accepts. He also likes stories of angels.
4- Love of stories:
At this age, the child loves to hear stories and seeks more of them, and he loves the one who tells them to him. The successful teacher is the one who memorizes many stories, whether stories from the Bible, from history, from the lives of the saints, or from animal stories.
Therefore, teaching children of this stage needs competence in the teacher and his information, depth in his preparation for the lesson, and skill in the method of presentation. Not everyone who teaches is suitable for teaching children.
5- Imitation:
The child at this age is passionate about imitation. He imitates his parents, imitates the Sunday School teacher, imitates the sounds of birds and animals, and imitates movements and words. Therefore, it is necessary for the teacher of this stage to be a role model in all his behaviors, words, movements, and even his facial expressions, because the child may take all of this from him instead of the lesson.
Thus, the teacher who has certain faults, even unintentionally, is harmful to this age. He must not only be free from faults that the child absorbs, but positively must be an example for the child to imitate in every virtue.
The teacher must be gentle, loved by the children, and not use methods of beating, severe rebuke, or punishing children in a way that frightens them or alienates them from the church and its servants.
The Troublesome Child in the Class
What should I do with a troublesome child in my class? What are the reasons that lead children to mischief, and what is the treatment?
The reasons that lead to a child’s mischief in the class may return to faults in the child, or in the teacher, or in the teaching, or may combine all of these together:
1- Perhaps the presence of a restless child in your class is a clear testimony that the teacher is not engaging or enjoyable and has not been able to attract the child’s attention. We all know that an attractive, pleasant story is capable of silencing the noisiest children.
2- Or the lesson may be enjoyable, but not suitable for the child’s age.
3- Sometimes the child resorts to mischief out of boredom, either because the lesson is repeated or because of the length of the lesson. The child cannot focus his attention for a long time on one subject unless the subject possesses all his senses. A short lesson is very suitable for children.
4- Perhaps the reason for the child’s mischief is that the teacher does not involve the child with him in the lesson, but rather delivers his lesson in a lecture style, not in a style of dialogue, questions, and answers. The child wants to speak and move during the lesson. He cannot remain silent for a long time. If you do not give him an opportunity for speech and movement—through many questions and answers, review, discussion, and recitation—he will move and speak for any reason without control.
5- Sometimes the reason goes back to overcrowding of the class with children, where the teacher cannot control the class, and the large number leads to noise. The child may be uncomfortable in his seat, or lost among a group in which he does not feel his personal entity, or he may think that he is not under observation because of the large number.
6- Perhaps the reason for his noise is the teacher’s neglect of him or lack of encouragement. In order to feel his personality and draw attention to himself, he resorts to mischief.
7- The reason may be the absence of an emotional relationship between the teacher and the pupil. Sometimes the teacher forgets individual care and is a stranger to the child, with no special bond connecting them. If such a bond exists, the problem is solved.
8- In any case, we cannot deny at all that the teacher’s personality has a great role in the calmness of the class. The beloved teacher, experienced in souls and in teaching methods, the spiritual person who is trusted and a role model, must be appreciated by his pupils, and they will keep quiet during his lesson.
9- God may have placed this child in the teacher’s path for his spiritual benefit, either to give him the virtue of patience and forbearance, or the virtue of wisdom and good management of souls, or to train him in prayer as he pours himself out before God for the sake of this child, or to teach him humility. Perhaps the teacher thought of himself that he was something, and God wanted the teacher to know that he is weak before leading a child.
10- The reason may return to the child, not to the teacher, such as the child being ill-tempered, pampered, loving to appear, talkative, or having excess energy that he does not know how to use. Such a child can be benefited from if his activity is used in a useful way.
11- The reason may return to bad example in church education classes or in the school where the child studies.
12- The reason may return to family problems that need to be solved.
Whatever the reason, we must treat it, whether it is in the teacher, the pupil, the family, or the bad example, knowing that our world directs itself more toward such a child, because the healthy do not need a physician but the sick. The Lord Jesus Christ left the ninety-nine and sought the one that was lost.
But beware of resorting to a wrong method in dealing with the troublesome child, such as pouring out your anger upon him, dealing with him by beating, expulsion, insults, humiliation, frequent rebuke, and harsh discipline. By this, you relieve your tired nerves, but you do not treat the child; on the contrary, you present to him and to others a bad example.
Remember that you also, perhaps one day—or even still—were a troublesome pupil among the disciples of Jesus Christ.
We pray that the Lord may inspire us with wisdom to deal with these children, that the Lord may bless their lives, and use them in His vineyard like the rest.
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