3 Things I Learned From Kids

Today, October 5th is International Teachers Day.

I taught English/Japanese in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for four years.

To celebrate and embrace my experience as a teacher, I decided to write about what I learned from teaching: particularly things that you can apply in the work environment.

I was mostly teaching powerful+wonderful kids from 4-15 years old. As I taught them English and Japanese, there was also something that I could learn from those precious kids.

In this article, you'll learn how to

1. Be creative
2. Be curious
3. Be a teacher/learner

in a way my students do.

Let's get started.

Be creative

Kids are creative. I know this is a cliche.

But, what exactly is "being creative"? I had a student named Hunter, a 9-year-old boy. He loved teasing me and being goofy in the class, just like every other 9-year-old.

One day, I told him

"Hunter, please take a seat. Time to begin the class."

"Okay.": He grabbed his chair but did an Asian squat.

"Can you sit on the chair like a normal person?"

"What's normal? Like this?" He pushed the chair away and did a wall sit.

"Hunter, PLEASE. Sit on the chair"

"I am sitting on this invisible chair!!!"

I know to some people, it seems like just a kid who doesn't listen to you. But as I was scolding him to listen to me and sit on his chair, I was impressed with how he could keep finding excuses for not taking a seat.

To make him listen to me, I also had to be a little bit creative.

"Oh, yeah!! Sorry, I didn't see your invisible chair! Okay, that's fine, you can sit on it. Let's begin the class."

He grabbed his "visible" chair grinning, and quietly took a seat.

According to BBN Times, children are more creative than adults because

"children have the benefit of not knowing what is not possible. For them everything is feasible."

Besides these stories, my students showed me their creativity in so many ways.

So BE CREATIVE like kids!! When we face problems in the work environment, we tend to think logically. (that's necessary too) Because of this, we cannot do this..., or this... if you are stuck, think like anything is possible.

Focus on the goal, maybe there are hundreds of ways to get to there.

Let's talk with kids. Ask what they think. Maybe you'll get a hint of how to be more creative.

If you don't have kids,(or even if you do) I recommend you to check an Instagram account @recess_therapy .

Some of you might have seen their content, but their videos might blow your mind.

Be curious

Students who learn faster are always more curious than other students.

Curious people are smart.

Valerie, my grade 5 student, is one of the most curious people I've ever met in my life.

Sometimes I got overwhelmed by the amount of questions she had. Sometimes I couldn't answer her questions because I didn't know how to answer.

She might ask a simple question like: "What's the difference between alligators and crocodiles? " ----which I couldn't answer... to be fair, though, I'm from Japan and you rarely see alligators or crocodiles, and those are both called 鰐（wani）in my mother tongue. So, until she asked me this question, I didn't even know alligators and crocodiles are different.

But that is an easy question that you can probably find the answer on Google.

The problem is when she asks something that doesn't have a definite answer.

One day she asked me "Anri, would you get jealous if your boyfriend goes out with another girl?"

"Haha, yes I probably would, honey. Why do you ask that?" I answered.

"Why would you get jealous? What's being jealous like? I never felt jealousy before!"

Unfortunately, I couldn't give her a clear answer when she asked this question, and I could tell that she wasn't satisfied.

But a few weeks later, she asked me if she could have all the stickers I brought to the class. I told her I could only give her one sticker because I also want to give it to other students as well.

She said "What!? You have other students as well...?!! Why... I thought I was your only student..." She looked a little sad and upset.

"Valerie, I think you are jealous now!!"

And, her face brightened up, and said "OH YES, I'M JEALOUS!"

It's interesting how kids ask us questions that we don't even care about.

But, it's so easy for us adults to fall into a pattern and forget to question "Why are we doing this?" "What is it really?"

Let's learn from Valerie to stay curious and keep asking questions to ourselves.

Be A Teacher/Learner

Please keep in mind that this is not a teacher/student but a teacher/learner. "Student" is your position, but "learner" is your attitude.

In my class, I give my students a lot of opportunities to teach. And, they learn a lot from teaching.

If I explain one thing and some students are not following, I would always let a student who already understands explain it to others.

As we know, the learning pyramid's most effective step is to teach others. But, this also shows that I trust the students, and it gives them confidence.

You can also assist them in explaining the concept, or correct them nicely if they say something wrong.

So, what can we learn from this?

It's important for leaders to give learners the opportunity to teach or do a presentation.

Well, maybe not a great idea to let a new employee mentor an intern, for example. But, it might be a good idea to let them give you a short summary of what they learn.

In this article, you learned something that I learned from 4-years of teaching experience.

Specifically,

1. Be creative: Focus on a goal, there are so many ways to get there.
2. Be curious: Keep asking questions.
3. Be a teacher/learner: Give employees a chance to summarize what they learned.

I hope you enjoyed this article and HAPPY INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS DAY!