growing pains

I remember having growing pains in my knees when I was little. When my mom told the reason for my pain was that I was growing, I felt a little bigger already. I guess, I wanted to grow up, and be able to do more.

Now that my body doesn't grow anymore, I don't have growing pain in my knees anymore, but will the growing pains ever completely disappear?

Learning and growing in life is usually hard. We have a difficult experience and we learn from the mistakes, or innocence. Of course we can also learn through successful experiences, but to make them successful they require hard work, patience and often a struggle is involved.

I see it with my students. Children become restless, they are harboring energy that is not yet used up, they are ready for more. Then comes the new, and with that the struggle to learn what is new. Sometimes children give up and need encouragement. But, once they have it, and understand the new (what every it is), they are proud and happy and will express their delight ever so differently with a smile, words, an exclamation, a jump....

Through the struggle with proper guidance (the new challenge always needs to be achievable) the student learns not only the new concept or activity, but also learns about him self. He learns to trust himself, he learns about his strengths and weaknesses.

As a teacher, I have moments when I don't know what to do about a certain behavior in a child. But it is through a struggle that I then come to a solution to try. Through careful reflections and observations I can then grow. Times when you don't know what to do, don't know what is really needed, don't know what possibly could change the situation, are frustrating. You want to give up, throw everything down, and/or make you doubt yourself, they are painful.

But then there is always the time when the pain stops and suddenly you have found a way to solve the mystery. That is the time to feel good and proud and just a little bit older. That is when you know it was worth the pain going through.

That is when you have grown a little more and become a little bit better teacher, mother, friend, and person.