When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
– Alexander Den Heijer

Michelle Salcedo, author, trainer, director and Exchange Leadership Initiative member, asks everyone working with young children to consider whether we sometimes blame children for behavior that stems from unrealistic expectations. In an article that’s the foundation of an Out of the Box training, “Classrooms as the Root of Challenging Behavior,” she explains:

“In early childhood classrooms across the country, teachers struggle with addressing challenging behaviors. The image of a gardener tending to a plant provides us with a different lens through which we can examine this topic. When faced with a plant that does not thrive, the dedicated gardener will leave no stone unturned in the quest to discover why. Does it need more (or less) water? Is it receiving enough sun? Is the soil giving the plant the nutrients it needs? All of these may be impacting a plant’s development. Rarely does a gardener throw up her hands and declare the plant as unfit.

“Similarly, when a child exhibits challenging behaviors, what if, instead of blaming the child, we were to look first at the environment? What if the focus were to shift from fixing the child to adapting the conditions in which the child is growing and learning? There is great power to lessen the incidences of challenging behaviors and increase learning (Katz, 2015) when teachers create learning environments shaped around children’s needs (Clayton & Forton, 2001; Inan, 2009).”