By Janet Moles
copyright ChildForum

As I quietly move close to the habitat of an early childhood centre, I observe that the group is in the midst of the strange ritual known as ‘The Staff Meeting’. In this gathering, the leader communicates to the group, the tasks to be achieved, assigns duties and informs them of new requirements, rules and expectations. An important part of the ritual is the response from the group, to the leader’s communications. Sometimes this is given at the time, whilst other groups wait until the leader has gone to utter the loud and anguished cry, “Aaaaaaaaargh!#$%! Not another thing to do!” Following this, they get on and do as requested.

Early childhood teachers are very familiar with change and new expectations. We’re a very adaptive species. However, we have a tendency to just add on the new task, rather than look to see how it can be incorporated with existing tasks – or even replace some of them. This paper is about working more effectively, rather than behaving like pack-horses and adding more burdens as they plod onwards, up the hill.

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