Understanding Children
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010ALL the school-children in the little town had been given a holiday for the Independence
anniversary celebration, and in their smart clean uniforms were marching proudly past
the District Commissioner and his guests on the town football field. ‘Which is your
daughter, Mr Mensah?’ asked the new college teacher from Britain; ‘They all look alike
to me.’ ‘That’s Comfort,’ was the reply, ‘the tall, thin girl in the third rank, and that is Mr
Dako’s daughter next to her-the one who walks with a slight limp.’
When a teacher first faces a new class containing pupils whose ages are all very much the
same, they often all seem to be alike, as they did to the newly arrived teacher from
overseas. As the teacher gets to know them better, they begin to appear less alike, more
as differing individuals’ Some stand out as individuals sooner than others; this one
because he is by far the tallest in the class, that one because he is the shortest; one
because he is always the first with his hand up to answer any question, another because
he is always the last to finish any piece of work. Then there are those who distinguish
themselves by their behaviour, usually by actions intended to attract the teacher’s
attention. All these we note for being extremes, for being the most: the tallest, the
shortest, the most bright, the slowest, the most talkative. There are many others in the
class whom we may get to know much more slowly, the ones who are not outstanding
one way or another. These we might call average children, but they are just as much
individuals as those who impress us more. We all have our individual differences, and
vary from one another in many different ways, in many different characteristics.
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