Ask Hello. Using the Term Friends
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狈础贰驰颁鈥檚 HELLO online forum is a great place to have conversations and create connections with peers around important early learning issues.
In a recent Hello discussion, a member sought input on friendship and addressing the whole class.
Excerpts from Hello have been edited for style and length.
Question:
What are your thoughts on using the term听friends听in the early childhood classroom to mean that everyone is your friend鈥攆or example, saying to听children, 鈥淲e are all friends鈥� or 鈥淟et's make room at the table for all our friends鈥�?
鈥擲ue, Ohio听
Responses:
We do use the term听friends听on occasion, when addressing the class as a whole. I find this to be more welcoming than referring to a class of young children as听students听or听kids. I think it is important to recognize that in real life, we are not going to be friends with everyone. However, being kind to everyone should be the focus.
鈥擲ara, Missouri
You pose a wonderful question. I have used听friends听to promote acceptance and unity. I hadn鈥檛 thought about the expectation that comes with the term. I would say using听friends听is not appropriate and is not a reality for the entire class.
鈥擩odi, Florida
We limit the use of the term听friends听in class. Our classroom name is the Junglers, so that is how we refer to the whole class. We use the term听friendly听quite often, as in being friendly/kind to all.
鈥擳别谤别蝉补
I'll share an anecdote: The dad of a former student mentioned that nearly every day his child returned home with complaints about a certain classmate, whom he referred to as his 鈥渨orst friend.鈥� While we chuckled at his child鈥檚 clever use of language, it confirmed for me that at the very least, there are linguistic problems with this use of听friend. Our improper use of language did not change the student鈥檚 feeling about his classmate, but it did make him unable to communicate clearly with his parents.
鈥擪aren, Pennsylvania
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