Frying Pans...Who Knew, Right?

(The title is catchy, but has nothing to do with the below post, everyone will be relieved to note. Well, nothing save the last three words.)

The days between Monday and Wednesday this past week were consumed with a Classical Conversations  practicum (seminar/summer camp). It was really quite interesting--on many levels, some of which were nice...and some rather eye-opening. Not only were there multiple lessons in humanity and related phenomena, but I made a personal discovery of huge proportion. 

 Let me explain: my mother and sisters were signed up for different classes during the practicum, but since I have reached the ripe old age of 17, the only recourse was to have me be a volunteer. So, I was assigned to the nursery to care for various and sundry small children. Shouldn't be too bad, right? I mean, don't babies mostly only sleep and play? There might be an occasional crier, but I can handle that! I'm not a wimp...

...after the first morning, though, I found that I was not *ahem* gifted with the patience or fortitude to sit in a confined space with three or more implacable babies (of whose habits I was completely in the dark) squalling at me. Thankfully, the volunteer coordinator offered me the chance for a "change of scenery" and I was glad to take her up on it. From then on, I was able to avoid stepping foot into the nursery, as I was transferred instead to the speech camp (where my sisters just happened to be enrolled. Mwahaha).

It was rather large, loud and chaotic class of children who may or may not have been fed a couple of spoonfuls of sugar mixed with Red Bull for breakfast, I'm not really sure. It was sort of comical how little it took for the room to descend into cacophony. However, despite this fact (or perhaps, because of it), I made a discovery that positively rocked my world.

I, who have never fully embraced babysitting, who have hitherto been convinced that kids didn't like me and that the feeling was mutual...I have now changed my point of view and begun to wonder if it's just a certain age group that I don't do well with! This is quite a mystery that must be thought through.

Upon further contemplation, I think that I may have figured it out. I think.

The thing about kids that age is that they (for the most part) are old enough to be reasoned with (to a certain degree) and yet still young enough to be devoid of much of the attitude that tends accompany the middle-school years. I won't say that they will always be negotiated with, or that they never have an attitude, but by-and-large they are in a lovely in-between zone that makes for a nice dynamic and experience (for me).

I knew that I loved teaching violin, but I thought that it was mostly about  imparting the knowledge of the violin itself. I now begin to wonder if it's because I like the age group. As my mother pointed out, I am descended from a long line of teachers; teachers of the Bible, teachers of music, homeschooling mothers. I don't know if there's anything in it, but hey...I'll buy it for what it's worth.


Well, this observation is drawing to a close. I enjoyed volunteering at this practicum and being around the kids, it was a great experience. However, sitting and attempting to keep these kids quiet from 9-4 for two days has ingrained a habit, so I would like to apologize in advance and hope that anyone that I come in contact with will forgive me if I appear bossier than usual or patronizingly shush them. I don't mean to, it's just a kind of reflex at this point. I'm a-working on it.

Olivia