WAIT HOLD ON I cannot fucking believe when I was like four years old my parents were cajoling me to walk with the family and trying to get me to keep up even though I kept insisting that I was "tired" until they took me to a doctor and found out my LUNGS DIDN'T WORK. how insane that we live in a world where reasonably loving parents think their FOUR YEAR OLD is trying to be LAZY. like they were mortified to be clear. adults are just so trained to ignore children's complaints as untrustworthy, kids just need discipline, they can't possibly speak for themselves. what the fuuuuck.
YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE BTW you should always be trying to take children seriously, especially very little ones but definitely all of them. the most disempowered class basically legally defined as property and most people are like "yeah that's good actually I hate when they Loiter lol they're stupid and loud and i actually think children should stop existing. restrict their personhood more actually"
ABSOLUTELY.
I am a substitute teacher, mostly in the K-6 range. Every child who has been able to communicate to me their issue (a major barrier honestly) has been 100% valid on that issue.
Even the hilarious ones. I had a K student who was crying in the corner rather than doing the activity, and when she finally told me (gasping and sobbing) that she just loved octopus SO MUCH that she could not do the work I was like yeah. Fair. I am also sometimes overwhelmed by my love or my interests and it stops me from doing what I'm supposed to do too. You can stay here, and I will come back in 5 minutes and see how you feel then. If you want to come out sooner you can, but if you want to stay that is also okay. Maybe two minutes later she was back at the table and working fine.
It doesn't have to make sense to me, it makes sense to them. It ALWAYS has a basis in reality somehow, somewhere. The 8th grader yelling at me and throwing things, maybe 4 days ago a trusted friend threw them over for a little clout. The 2nd grader stonewalling me, maybe their cousin that they love is moving farther away soon. It doesn't have to make sense right here or right now, but it does make sense.
It always makes sense if you know enough. I don't need to know, I just need to respect it. Every issue I have ever had with a student comes from me either ignoring, dismissing or downplaying their real (invisible, unknown, valid) problems.
