Why would you say such a thing to a little girl?

The things our teachers say about us have a huge impact, sometimes bigger than what our parents say. If your teacher says that you’re not smart enough to achieve anything in life, you’re going to either believe that and live your life as if you’ll never accomplish anything, or do everything in your power to prove them wrong. That’s why being a teacher is such a big responsibility. Even though it doesn’t always feel like it is, the future of the youth is in your hands, it is! One teacher might not be able to turn a horribly behaved kid into a saint, but they can help kids who are eager to be helped. 

As a teacher, it’s best not to make value judgments about a student, especially verbally and to their face. You might privately think that a kid is smart, talented, or a nuisance, but if you say that out loud, there’s a good chance they will get a complex about it. If teachers constantly tell a kid how smart he is, he might not feel he needs to try anymore because he believes he’s the smartest person in the room. On the other hand, if a teacher is always telling one kid that he’s smarter than everyone else, all the other kids in the room are going to internalize feelings of inadequacy. 

The teacher in this story said something so out of line to her daycare student that it’s almost unbelievable.