It isn't so much finding a way to relate school to reality, some parents may think, but instead just teaching them how to survive. I don't know the true intentions of the teacher, but I can honestly say that at face value, she should be lauded for trying to find ways to identify with students she otherwise wouldn't be able to as well. Mary Had a Little Lamb , a book mentioned in CNN's article, would not relate anywhere near as well. Like children give a damn what happened to the stupid sheep, or to Little Miss Muffet, or the cow and the cat and the moon and the spoon and the milking that story has gotten through the years. Okay, now let's have some fun.
Teachers get enough shit as it is.
Touching, a natural form of communication, particularly used by humans to express approval, is off-limits. Teachers are forced to stay to a set curriculum, with little flexibility and little rearranging of schedules to compensate for the actual flow of a class over a semester. Teachers also are blamed for lack of motivation in their students, as are they not allowed to try to give their students enriching and rewarding lives by making them think. There is virtually no incentive to teach to grade school kids beyond the sheer motivation of the individual trying to become a teacher. Society does not reward these people who have huge influences on molding children at their early ages.