Plagued by the poopers in Prague Part 2: Pre-school

I started my afternoon pre-school job today - way different part of town, very different school... the kids are much younger and have virtually no exposure to english and I was left alone with them for about 45 minutes without a czech teacher or any other supervision... crazy! The physical set up of the school is totally different too.

Fortunately there are a lot less students in this program - my main school can have 20 kids show up easily, and this school I only had 5 to deal with... or maybe make that 4 as one boy removed himself and refused to participate in anything.

I thought we weren't communicating for obvious reasons - I speak and understand only english and he speaks and understands only czech. When the other teacher showed up she let me know I was wrong.

Apparently he doesn't really speak czech either. It's his native language but he doesn't speak, as in form sentences to communicate, he does a kind of babyish babble still. And apparently he's not potty trained either. He pooped.

We had to call his Mom to come get him.

Throughout the afternoon he refused to engage in conversation with me or the other children. He wouldn't participate in the games or activities and wouldn't ask either of us for what he wanted but would rather grab a finger and grunt and pull and point at whatever it was. I'd reach for what I though he wanted and he'd grunt at me some more to let me know that wasn't what he wanted... and this was before he knew I didn't speak czech.

I felt rather bad for the little boy. He was obviously too young to be in preschool - size and age he was in line with the other children but his maturity and development levels just don't match. When his mother showed up she changed him and cleaned him up and then explained to the head teacher that he won't use the toilets there as he only likes to use his little potty chair at home. The teacher reviewed the school rules as they'd not yet had a chance to do so and they went on their way.

Afterwards the teacher let me know they would take him for up to one month (provided there wasn't a repeat of today, which would end in an earlier termination) and then explain to the Mom that he's not ready for the school. She was ready and wanted to tell her that today but thought the Mom might think it was just because he pooped his pants. While that definitely contributed to her frustration that's not the reason.

Even though it was his first day it seems pretty clear that if the child is not yet at a level where he can put together sentences or at least effectively communicate he's not ready to be in a classroom focused on verbal interaction and group activities as a means of learning. Unfortunately that class is focused on heavy verbal interaction, group games and play, and following directions.

This school only has an afternoon english program, so the kids who attend either come over from another school where they attend in the morning or they come from home. The other school, my main preschool, is an all day program and much more flexible with younger children who don't really follow along - they have more instructors and more activities... more options in general and we're able to break them down in to groups of different abilities and maturity.

The school today has a very clear agenda and guidelines - each child should be able to communciate with set phrases in a question and response setting by the end of the week. For this week they need to be able to properly identify red, yellow, blue, and green in english, as well as respond to the question - What is your name? Next week is actually scheduled to be the same topic, with more colors added, as the students are still joining (school only opened yesterday).