Children are the Future

      Working at the Early Childhood Education Center you are able to see many different types of personalities. After a while, you are able to identify different physiological terms that you learn in your various classes. One term that I recently observed was learned helplessness.

      One morning four of my students and I were playing with play-do and showed them the sun that I had just made. Naturally they responded my saying, “Can you make me a sun?!” “I want a sun too!!” . I responded by saying “I won’t make it for you, but I can help you guys make it yourselves”. So I took each of the students’ play-do and made them into balls and told them to smush it down like this. I then proceeded to smush down my play-do. Three of my students started to follow my directions while the fourth student exclaimed, “I can’t do it! Make me a sun!” I replied by saying “I won’t make it for you, but I can help you make it yourself.” She began to cry saying "I can’t make it!" Soon her cries turned into to tantrum. This situation came as a shock to me. I would have never thought that a child so young, one who has not yet gotten to kindergarten, one who has yet to know what hard is has already gotten into the mindset that he is incapable of doing tasks on his own.

      In psychology we call this term learned helplessness. Basically, this means that a person, or in this case a student, has come to the conclusion that no matter if they try or not they will not be able to succeed in any given task. As I reflected on that situation I began to think 'What can I do to correct this mindset?' Especially for a student so young, it is essential for them to know that they are capable. I read an article called “Avoiding"Learned Helplessness"”. In this article Miller talks about steps that we as teachers can take to pull our students out of the “I can’t's” and turn them into “I can's”. As a future educator I believe that we should all (teachers and parents) be prepared to stop our students (and children) from believing that they are incapable. If we can change their thinking about situations I strongly believe that we can change the world. Children are our future and you never who what a child might become. Taking each one and making them a better student and a better person can make a lasting impact in lives of people everywhere.