Michael Wu

At the end of my bachelor’s degree, I decided to make a risky move, where I applied Master of Teaching in early childhood. Out of all the degrees I can choose from, I sometimes ask myself why I chose it. Was it because of my regret about my little brother being uneducated during his childhood due to my limited knowledge? Was it because my own childhood was unpleasant? Or was it because of I lost faith in my hospitality career? For a long period of time, these questions became a great concern for me.

I came to Australia approximately 7 years ago. I spent a few years staying in Melbourne with my bachelor’s degree and moved to Adelaide for my master’s degree. Before I entered the world of teaching, I did not know anything about it. When I first got a sense of the courses on the degree, I thought I would completely fail because I could not imagine myself being an early childhood teacher.

During my early years, I was one of the most challenging children in the classroom. This is probably why I can understand and appreciate the children with challenging behaviours I have been taught. By rewinding to my early years, I can visualise myself being the challenging child arguing with the teacher. Therefore, I can provide emotional support to build the relationship with children by using the knowledge I possessed.

When I first started to learn about the way children learn and the way they process knowledge, I could almost imagine how I or my brothers can be a lot more different during our early years. I once blamed myself for realizing the importance of education in children’s early years. As a result, I was committed to my study and became obsessed with it by learning more and more about early childhood education. Malaguzzi once said, “Each one of you has inside yourself an image of the child that directs you as you begin to relate to a child”. When I reflected on this, I see my early years and all other children as not just a magical period of innocence but a period of nurturing independence, talents and interests. Although parents are the first teachers to support their part of their learning, Early Childhood Teachers like us can help them reach their full potential.