Can't Say Fat

At Circle time today, my little friends and I were running through some of our favorite finger plays. We began with "The Thousand-Legged Worm", which gave all of us (including me) the chance to practice our hopping. We moved on to "God Loves You" followed by "Leo the Lion". The children love to open their arms wide and let out a great "roar!" Afterward we turned our lion jaws into elephant trunks and repeated:

 The elephant is so big and FAT

he walks like this

he walks like that.

He has no fingers

he has no toes

but oh my goodness, what a nose! 

As we were trumpeting like elephants at the end of the song I heard an excited, "teacher, teacher!" "Is there something you'd like to share?" I asked a little boy. And his sweet voice replied, "you can't say fat."

Taking advantage of this teachable moment we talked about how the word fat would be a very mean thing to say to a person. Mean words make your heart hurt. We decided it was okay to say an elephant is fat because animals are different than people and don't have feelings. The children then named some animals that were large like elephants and thin like snakes. 

Preschool children are by nature egocentric which is why sharing is difficult for them. They are just beginning to understand that other people matter. The concept of feelings is new to them as well so I found it unusual that a child this young would be sensitive to a word like fat. I'm sure he's learned this lesson at his family dinner table. 

An important goal of our school is to teach children, after the example of Jesus, to love your neighbor as yourself and to be kind to everyone. It's a very simple concept. Or is it? I don't usually call people fat but am I always kind to everyone? Do I kindly wait behind the woman in the Produce Section who is taking her good old time when I'm in a hurry? Am I kind to people whose political views or opinions are vastly different from my own? Do I offer up a smile to the grouchy looking man at the post office or do I put my head down and avoid him? And am I always careful with the words I use?

Schools across the country are investing great time and money to institute anti-bullying programs. How much easier it would be if all children were taught at a young age, like this little guy, to keep your tongue from saying something mean.