Ever since I was little, I LOVED birthdays. Not just my birthday, but all of my friends and families birthdays too. All the presents, balloons and cake was the most exciting thing ever, and I started to get excited for birthdays weeks before the actual day.
However, ever since last year when I moved to university, I grew to dislike birthdays. Not the fact that we are all getting older, or the cake, or the presents, it was the fact that the people I loved were celebrating without me. Now that may sound selfish, but I came to realise that it wasn’t all of the materialistic stuff that birthdays brought with them that I missed, it was the person who’s birthday it was I was missing. Seeing tradition being with those I loved not happening as I was apart from them was heart breaking.
To me , it is much more important to be with that person on their birthday, and the whole purpose of a birthday became much more prominent to me. Although I still find it upsetting, I realised that I can still celebrate their birthday without being there physically and I appreciate those at home much more.
After our RME inputs, I considered what other days are special to me and other people and why. Although birthdays are special to me, so is Christmas and Easter. Everyone in the world celebrate, or don’t celebrate, different events and days for personal reasons, which I feel it is my duty as a teacher to find out what is special to the pupils in my class and why. I think its important to respect, appreciate and celebrate every child’s beliefs and special days.
Even though birthdays aren’t the same, I have realised that I can still have special days and celebrate in my own way. I will explain to children that they can celebrate what they want to and discuss and explore their special days.
This experience is one that we all go through I think. Some earlier in their lives than others. In terms of taking something from this professionally I think it is important to reflect on how this sense of loss, albeit small to some extent, is felt so much by you. What then does this mean for the children that you work with when things happen in their lives: bereavement, divorce and other contexts in which things change for them? It is important that we consider the whole child’s needs and that we tune in to the affective aspect of their being but we must always look to see how we can, in accommodating this need, continue to help them progress as learners. Our IDL working in semester 1 can also help us see how a range of support agencies can help the teacher in this regard.