Tears a normal part of early education

Occasional tears in the preschool classroom are not only acceptable, they are expected, according to experts.

"Crying is natural," said Bernadette Kaufman, an early childhood education consultant for the diocesan Catholic School Office. She said children may cry because they are afraid in a new environment or have fears about being left by a parent.

"A child has no sense of time," she explained. While parents may tell their children what time they will return, to the children it may seem like a lifetime. They even wonder if the parent will ever return.

As the school year goes on, preschoolers tend to cry less as the school routine and people become more familiar to them, notes Diane Thompson, an early childhood education teacher at St. Mary's Institute in Amsterdam.

"By spring, they've made close friends with classmates," she said. "The rules will be routine. School will be a home away from home. Once in a while, we have tears with four-year-olds. It's more prevalent with three-year-olds."

Morning drop-offs can be tear-free, according to Mrs. Kaufman, once the child can trust the teacher. It is especially helpful if the teacher comes down to the child's eye level to speak to him or her, she said.

It is more difficult to stop three-year-olds from crying; they tend to imitate each other. Once one child starts to cry, classmates soon follow suit until a whole classroom of three-year-olds is wailing. (MM)

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