I’m a Kindergarten Teacher. Believe Me, the Beginning of School is Always Like Fight Club.
Originally published by Slate on September 15, 2023
New piece for Slate, scroll for an excerpt and read the rest here! Missing you all tremendously, come find me on IG @mcizmane
I have spent most of the past decade working with kids 5 years old and younger, and I have seen it all. Biting, punching, kicking, screaming—all carried out by humans with the most cherubic faces imaginable. Years as a teacher have shown me that the violence is never more acute than during those first few months of school, when the toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners entering new and bizarre social contexts are suddenly being told to ignore their natural impulses to fight to defend themselves in favor of “using their words.” I have watched classrooms and playgrounds quickly descend to Brad Pitt–Ed Norton levels of no-holds-barred conflict over toys, sandboxes, and fruit snacks, and every fall, I have parents coming to me, anxious at best and horrified at worst, about what their child is telling them is happening at school. Without fail, I tell them all that same thing—everything is OK! But not enough time and space is made to explain what is happening with the babies during the first few weeks of school.
Continue reading here: https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/09/preschool-fights-biting-kindergarten-normal.html