A mother and a teacher
My perspective for teaching was changed from deep roots in the day when I became mother. Actually, something started to change when I was pregnant. Of course, change in my feelings was one of the important reasons of that, but when I felt what is the meaning of being a mother essentially, my perspective for children and education was changed completely. Every child comes to a school with her/his mother. I am not talking about mothers coming a school physically. Children bring their mothers to a school. Knowing family, primary mother, behaving as knowing that each child is special and unique, have been the most important elements determining natures of education for me.
Firstly, by taking myself as an example, I have started to review mothers with a new perspective and children by taking my daughter as an example. In pre-school and primary school periods, there is a flow between a child, a mother and a teacher which is beyond predictions. In that point, in order to establish a well-balanced relation, improvement of a child is extremely important to be an individual and success academically. In this three-parties relation, a teacher should have a clear and unprejudiced perspective about status of the parties.
When my daughter started pre-school education, I was not just a teacher anymore but also a guardian. In other words, I was at the other side. I started to feel expectations of a mother from a school and a teacher. Maybe my first expectation was that her teacher likes my daughter but the more important thing from that, to embrace her with her own personality, to guide her rather than directly interfering her improvement. Most of mothers expect this even if they cannot name it exactly. They want that a teacher loves children in general and particularly their child and be a good guide for them. They want that their child learns to express self in relation with his/her peers in a school environment or a classroom not only teaching reading-writing, basic math information.
It is very important what you see when you look at a child. It is your choice to see a person who cannot answer a question, cannot understand a subject, does not follow rules, cannot stand sound or withdraws into self or to see a person with a dove uneasiness at her/his looks due to the things she/he cannot do, and to question reasons of that uneasiness. I tried to understand desperate and unhappiness of a child and his/her parents based on what my daughter thought me after she was born and trainings that I have taken to improve myself during years, in the light of the books I have read.
We cannot provide an education that is customized according to personal developments and we cannot arrange a classroom and a school environment according to needs. Additionally, troubles of daily lives have increased day by day. If so, I said to myself, we can change their awareness, perceptions, thinking structures, we can help them to be more prepared against this life. That is how we met Eline Snel. I found answers I have been looking for in “Mindfulness for Children” method that was developed by Eline Snel and that its success was proven scientifically.
As being a teacher and a mother in the same time, observing change of awareness studies on my daughter, nephews and students, increased my excitement. Thanks to this method, I am impressed when I see how communication that they do with their bodies, their perspective for feelings and thoughts were evolved, how they were improved by meeting with compassion and self-compassion. I saw success of the method included into curriculum in Netherlands with my own eyes. I felt with my heart.
By combining experience that I obtained by my student entering into my life during my twenty years of career and things I have learned as mother of my daughter with Mindfulness Method that was developed by Eline Snel, I started a journey to reach more children, adolescents and adults.