Isn't education wonderful? (Anna)

Today, Emma had the opportunity to learn three new words in the space of about ten minutes. 1) hickey 2) shit and 3) fuck...

...from the children's librarian at the local library. 

I was there with Emma for storytime. The librarian wanted to tell us, the adults, a funny story before we started the kids' stuff . She had overheard some Olympic athletes talking about the girls they had met the night before and the hickies that had resulted from these "meetings". She told the story several times, taking great delight in the word "hickey" and repeating it several times with gusto. 

Now, at a library storytime, this is the ultimate in modelling best practices in early childhood pedagogy. If you want children to learn new words, repeat them over and over, preferably in the context of a short but memorable story. 

Her next story (before "ABC Dog") was about a kid she knew who had picked up the habit of saying "Shit, shit, shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck". She thought it was wonderful, she told us, without a hint of irony, how kids often repeat what they hear adults say. She not only repeated the rhythm several times, "Shit, shit, shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck," but repeatedly reinforced that this was desirable behaviour, and a surefire way for a kid to be seen as "adorable". 

Again, early childhood literacy at its best. Make words fun, repeat them in memorable rhythms, emphasize the important bits, and laugh while you do it. 

The adults laughed. And then the librarian clapped her hands and said, "Ok. Let's start."

But the 0-3 year olds were already sitting in a circle around her, captivated by her every word...