Objectifying Children

The topic of "objectifying children" is one that can be visited, and revisited, many times over. Most of us are guilty in our actions, and/or language, of addressing children as objects, rather than as beings. Be it intentional or unintentional, it would serve us well to stop and reflect on the the possible effect that such miscarriages of thought and behavior might have on the present and future well-being of the child. 
 

"The worst attitude of all would be the professional attitude

which regards children in the lump as a sort of raw material

which we have to handle."

~On Three Ways of Writing for Children

As a first year teacher I quickly came to realize how important it was to recognize the identity of the child in personalized terms, i.e., most children take exception to being addressed in terms that attack their dignity and self-respect. A perfect example of this is addressing the child by their given name rather than an impersonal format such as "hey you."

Perhaps our objectifying of children, both intentional and unintentional, is a result of our tendency to distance ourselves from another person - in this case the child - for one of many reasons (e.g. concern about being accused of inappropriateness of interaction with children). Self-preservation  is a powerful motive, but some of the ripples it creates can be damaging both to self and others. Humans are social creatures by nature, and actions that separate or distance us from others cannot help impacting our humanity if some way.

"Children are sponges.

They absorb every wordthat comes out of your mouth.

They mimic your body language and they emulate your behavior."

~Nanny 911

As a school administrator I had the opportunity to interview, and enter into conversation with, many aspiring teachers and paraprofessionals. Very often in those conversations the individual being interviewed would refer to children as "sponges" absorbing what was being taught. From such a perspective it would be wise to remember that they would also be absorbing everything else that was going on within their environment!

"As one young teacher I know put it,

"You feel like you should be seeing light bulbs

going off in kids' heads every day...."

~The New Teacher Book



The "light bulb" cliche is another of those colloquial quips that appears positive and personal on the surface, but under closer examination is a form of depersonalization of a very important human interaction taking place between teacher and student. Would it not be more personalized, and more accurately descriptive, if one were to replace "light bulbs going off" with "recognizing expressions of understanding," or some such statement?

In closing, there will undoubtedly be a number of readers who will scoff at the comments above and consider such a concern as expressed herein to be trite and insignificant, if not downright absurd. Perhaps the reader drawing such a conclusion would be justified in his/her conclusion. However, before totally disparaging the concern regarding the objectification of our children, or anyone else for that matter, please take a moment to consider how often you and I are objectified ourselves on a daily basis. Keeping a "chit sheet" of our own, or other's, words and actions that depersonalize an event or conversation with another person for a day of two might be found to be quiet revealing. Improvement accompanies understanding. Understanding accompanies assessment. Assessment is accompanied by self-examination. Self-examination is the route to self-improvement.