Why training is important

Back in early October as I was walking to another Saturday training with Stacia, my site manager, I lamented over the loss of my weekend and severely questioned the purpose of these long trainings. I thought, “It’s all so obvious. Why do I need sit here for eight hours and listen about how to properly let kids color?” Four months later, however, it has become incredibly obvious why this training was important. We grow up with certain structures that we then in turn apply to our partner children. For example, when I was their age I was never allowed to pour my own paint when painting, and when I would be in charge of the art center during Center time, I initially did not allow the partner children to pour their own paint as well, at least, until my site manager came along. She reminded me of all the reasons that Jumpstart lets the children play with paint, and the reasons it was beneficial for their development. This concept had been laid out in training, and, when reflecting on it, so had many other things that did not necessarily coincide with my initial view on how to deal with children, but I now find myself implementing strategies from my trainings that I thought at the time were pointless. Except those strategies are not pointless, they actually work. Instead of just yelling at my children to sit and be quiet I give them the option of where to sit, which seemed to quench their thirst for independence while still accomplishing my goal. All in all, while the Jumpstart strategies may seem…unnecessarily specific at times, they do, in fact, work and help the children to reach their development goals.

~Kellen White
Corps member

Team Joy 1