On his first visit to
kindergarten, while mother was
still with him, Bruce,
age five, looked over the paintings on
the wall and asked
loudly,
"Who made these ugly pictures?"
Mother was embarrassed.
She looked at her son
disapprovingly and
hastened to tell him,
"It's not nice to call the pictures ugly when
they are so pretty."
The teacher, who
understood the meaning of the
question, smiled and
said,
"In here you don't have to paint pretty pictures. You can
paint mean pictures if you feel like it."
A big smile
appeared on Bruce's face, for now he had
the answer to his hidden
question:
"What happens to a boy who doesn't paint so
well?"
Next Bruce picked up a
broken fire engine and
asked self-righteously,
"Who broke this fire engine?"
Mother answered,
"What difference does it make to you who broke it?
You don't
know anyone here."
Bruce was not really
interested in names. He
wanted to find out what
happened to boys who break toys.
Understanding the
question, the teacher gave an
appropriate answer:
"Toys are for playing. Sometimes they get broken. It
happens."
Bruce seemed satisfied.
His interviewing skill had netted him the necessary
information:
"This grownup is pretty nice. She does
not get angry quickly, even when a
picture comes out ugly
or a toy is broken. I don't have to be afraid.
It is safe to
stay here."
Bruce waved good-bye to his mother and went over
to the teacher to start his first day in kindergarten.
LSCI
Institute Between Parent & Child, Haim Ginott, 1968
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