Our room is "out of control"

It wasn't the first time I had read the sentiment (or something similar) "our room is out of control". But when I read this in an early childhood Facebook group a week or so ago, I had the sudden urge to write a blog post about it. This isn't about that specific post, but a conglomerate of posts of the same vein that I have read in recent months. This isn't a judgment. This is a reflection, a wondering. You see, I can understand the idea. I visit a lot of services, and have definitely experienced some rooms (and certainly did while working in services myself) that could probably be described as "out of control". But there is always something more. There is always a bigger picture. 

Sometimes, though, when we are in the thick of it, it is simpler to say or feels easier to say that it's the children, or the way in which the children are parented, or an increase in device use. Of course, there are external factors which have an impact on children's behaviour - I am definitely not suggesting that there isn't. But these are often things outside of our control, and focusing on them, or blaming them, does little to resolve the feeling of chaos in our spaces. 

When I was working in a service some 20 years ago, our Fridays were a nightmare in the preschool room. It was always chaotic. There was always conflict. There were a large group of children whose sole desire was to play football (whether we were indoors or out) and crash tackle one another. It was loud. It was a LOT. 

It would have been easy to blame the external factors - parenting techniques, our low socio economic community, the high numbers of children with diagnosed (and yet to be diagnosed) additional needs. And of course, those were all very real factors. But they were beyond our control. There was only so much we could do about any of those things (though of course, we were very much aware of and responsive to them). 

What we could control was US.

We could control the way we showed up on a Friday (less "ugh, it's going to be awful" and more "let's start fresh today!" )

We could control our daily schedule (less structured timeslots and forced group times and more indoor/outdoor and long, uninterrupted blocks of time for play)

We could control our response to the big body behaviours like wrestling, and tackling (less "stop that, someone will get hurt" and more "let's find a way to do that safely and give your bodies what they crave") 

We could control our environment (less loud music in an already noisy space, and more outdoors and nature sounds, less flickering fluorescent lighting and more warm, natural, soft lighting) 

We could control our interactions (less commands, and more connection) 

In a room that felt "out of control", we realised that there was so much that we could control, if we were prepared to reflect on our practice and try new, responsive ways of working. 

Back to the current sentiment of "our room is out of control". Has it changed in recent years? Has what educators are working with on a day to day basis gotten "worse"? Some educators who have been in the sector for many years suggest that it has changed, while others feel that although some of the external factors (like device usage and an increase in diagnosed additional needs) have increased, children and their "chaos" are inherently the same. I also wonder if increased pressure on educators, challenges with staffing/ratios etc have added to this feeling of "out of control", or somehow impacted our ability to maintain an environment that is responsive, nurturing, curiosity sparking and all of those other good things we know benefit children? 

I also wonder what out of control looks or feels like to educators who are using terms like this, or noting these same challenges.

Is out of control about the room being noisy? Or messy? 

Is out of control about children running around? 

Is out of control about resources being damaged?

Is out of control about children "not listening"? 

Is out of control about children not doing what we think they should be doing? Using materials in a different way to what we intended? 

We need to put better words to "out of control" so that we can start to identify the real problem. If, for example, it's because the room is noisy, how can we make it quieter? (and who determines what level of noise is acceptable?) or can we offer an indoor/outdoor program to allow children who need to be noisy, the space to be noisy? 

As I said at the very beginning of this blog post, I completely understand why educators say "out of control" and I can empathise with the feelings of chaos and thinking "is it lunch time yet?" I know though, that it's not just a "bad group" (although group dynamics can definitely have an impact). There is something more going on, and the responsibility is on us to respond - to reflect and think and question and test approaches. Children (and all humans) aren't perfect. We are all messy, imperfect creatures who get things "wrong" at times. We are all learning our place in the world, and how to connect with others within in. This is tricky, and sometimes it get's a little chaotic and "out of control". But when we approach it with an attitude of curiosity and creativity, instead of despair and frustration (you can certainly feel those feels... just don't unpack and live in them!!), we all benefit from that.