For just over a year I’ve been working in a kodomoen, obstensibly as an english teacher but I’m quite often the only adult in the room. And we’re told not to tell the kids “だめ” to anything right up until the point they are already hitting someone or about to be seriously injured. So kids are basically allowed to jump on tables, and you can only playfully encourage them to come down. if they are hitting other kids, you can only really stand in the way. Quite often a kid will get angry and scratch a random kids face, and the j-teachers will just cuddle the attacking kid to calm them down, then give them one on one attention for 5 minutes, while the kid who is attacked gets maybe 30 seconds of attention, an ice pack for their face, and then sits on the floor alone solemnly looking at their teacher playing with the kid who hit them. It seems like the confident loud kids and the kids who hit other kids get attention, and the quiet kids who can look after themselves get kind of ignored, whether they have friends or not.
Is this just my workplace? Is this normal for Japan? For everywhere? My son will be entering a preschool next year, and I’m scared.
by throwthisaway546789