Who goes picking flowers in spring?
But I go to raise children
Why do you want your juniors to get well soon?
Why do you want your juniors to be good?
Or because I love too much
Red lips, round cheeks
I love every bright eye
Sparkling like dew drops
I love every bright eye
Sparkling like dew drops
Those lyrics keep humming in my mind when I have time to sit back and think about my career and my youth.
Time flies so fast! It has been 17 years since I joined the beloved Duc Tri Kindergarten. I remember when I first started my career with so many unfamiliar things, but day by day, teaching and taking care of the little ones, I realized so many values from the job I had chosen. My youth, the days of my youth have been spent here, in this school and in the "seedlings" that I am taking care of and teaching. I always keep in mind that my job is to nurture and sow seeds. Only when the young buds are healthy and good will the tree grow quickly and bear many sweet fruits. Just like that, it is that simple, but my love for the job and for children has been kindled and grown day by day.
Becoming a preschool teacher, there are moments when I sob when thinking about the profession, many times we feel really pressured when children have scratches, mosquito bites somewhere on their body, when parents blame us. There have also been many sleepless nights because of worrying and thinking, but then those feelings gradually pass quickly because every day I get to love, care for, and teach innocent faces, looking at the big round eyes of the children, I feel that those blames are just small ripples on the river of the profession that we are traveling.
As preschool teachers, if we don't truly love children, how can we take care of them every day? At home, each of us has two children, but when we go to school, we are the mothers of a bunch of children. Many times, the children cry together, they don't want to eat, they vomit, and when the weather changes and they get sick, we have to remind ourselves to take care of them with love, not with responsibility. Although the work is stressful, we always remind ourselves to be gentle and kind to the children. Treat them as our own children. Every word and action we do is an example. Children, especially those aged three and five, are the age to form their personalities. They are like a blank sheet of paper, and we will be the ones to help them draw the first strokes of the colorful life they are about to receive. Not only taking care of the children, we preschool teachers also always want to teach them life skills, from self-service skills, physical training to singing, dancing, and reading poetry. Every day, listening to the children's babbling, their unreadable poems, and their unclear songs also helps us to relieve our fatigue. Then, day by day, the children know how to greet, how to speak politely to everyone, how to love grandparents, parents, and friends, and our hearts are filled with happiness.
Every day we have to transform into many different roles. We are teachers, but at the same time we are also mothers, fathers, doctors, psychologists... There are also days when we are fairies coming out of fairy tales, Hang, Cuoi on the moon or even superheroes in cartoons. All of our work is just to make the children happy, to make them want to go to school every day, and to show them the interesting things in life.
Any difficulty can be overcome with understanding and sharing. And I consider myself very lucky to work in a group with female colleagues who always care and advise each other about both life and work. More than anyone else, we understand each other's difficulties very well. The years when I first started my career were full of awkwardness and pressure, sometimes I even did not have the courage to move forward, but it was the encouragement of my seniors that made me more steadfast. And now, when I am strong enough, I will pass on to you - the young teachers - the lessons of experience in the profession, will pass on to you the fire of the profession that has burned in me for the past 17 years. So that my group will grow stronger, and so that every day our young juniors will be able to study and play in joy and love.
Being able to do the job I love and enjoy makes me feel so meaningful and excited every day. Everyone has their own reasons for entering the preschool teaching profession, but there is definitely a common reason to stick with it – love. And that love for the profession and for children is the reason why we always want to be called by everyone with the affectionate title: Preschool Teacher!!!