It's good you're using it as a conversation starter... from the context, i thought you meant it was for a special kind of treatment.. I just imagined all the catholics grouped up in the corner of the room or something, sheltered from the rest of you.
LOL! Oh heavens no. There's been enough class wars in this country, I'm not going to start a new one by myself. No, I just feel it's a good thing to teach children that their way of doing things isn't the only way.other families do things differently. I hear it makes for more tolerant adults.
Besides that, I think it's nice to know if you're raising your kid, for example, vegetarian, so I know she's not supposed to eat meat. (Would have saved me a world of trouble if I had known that
before shit hit the fan.) Different situations call for different approaches. For example, if I saw this girl have a meat sandwich, I'd ask her if her mum would approve, maybe open up a conversation about how she feels about it and why she's going against her parents' wishes. (Just using the example above, it applies to all kinds of things) It's not to single kids out and call attention to the fact that they're 'different'. It's to avoid drama.
Besides, you're not just their teacher. You're not there to stuff dry facts in their heads and bugger off. You're an authority figure. For toddlers, you're the one who knows best and can always tell them how to do things right, simply by virtue of being an adult. That is a huge responsibility and if I tell them something that goes directly against what they hear at home, that's going to upset them. I feel like I should know these kids outside the classroom. I want to know how they feel and how they react to things. And I'm not going to be able to do that if I don't know what the hell is going on with them outside of school.
I'm also in the process of becoming a teacher here in the U.S., and agree wholeheartedly with you. Granted, my target age group is high schoolers, but the idea is still the same. There are too many teachers who just want to throw some information up on the board and go home. I've had some wonderful teachers in my own academic career, and they all expressed the same attitude that you have.
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