Thursday, September 11, 2008

I wanna hold your hand

What do you think the rules should be in a Kindergarten classroom regarding hand-holding? Okay or not okay? Sam's teacher has deemed it "inappropriate". Kindergarteners should not be acting like boyfriend/girlfriend. Well, I agree if that was their intention... Sam doesn't even know what that means. It was a little hard to explain to him why he would no longer be able to hold his friend Maddie's hand in class. Anyone have any advice?

3 comments:

Beckie said...

On one hand (no pun intended) I agree that holding hands in kindergarten is harmless and certainly not done with the intention of behaving as a "couple." On the other hand, it is hard to know at exactly what age it begins to cross boundaries (it is likely different for each child) so maybe the best approach is to not allow it at all.

As for explaining it to Sam, maybe you could approach it from Paul's perspective in Romans 14 where he teaches that even though something itself may not be sinful (i.e. kindergarteners holding hands), if it causes your brother to fall you should not do it. Maybe it could be as simple as explaining that some people are uncomfortable or lead to sinful behavior by seeing Sam hold his friends' hands and he needs to be sure that he doesn't encourage their sinful behavior.

Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with holding hands in kindergarten. However, you need to abide by the rules of the classroom so maybe this is just an opportunity to introduce another Biblical teaching.

Jennifer Poole said...

boy, I don't know. I think what Beckie said sounds right. I think he'll understand if you explain it the way Beckie recommended. by the by, I posted my "6".

Sarah said...

I just don't want to make it sound to him like holding hands is wrong all the time. If I attach it to a Biblical truth (other than obeying people in authority over you I guess) he will tend to think that way - he thinks in extremes (I have no idea where he gets this from!).
I'm kind of sad that his innocence was taken away on this issue in the first place. In Kindergarten! Isn't that where we all got our first kiss?!!