Reality Isn't Always as it Seems, Especially When it Comes to Classroom Management

The image at the top of this post is obviously AI generated.

I feel like I can always tell when something is AI generated. Usually, it's the eyes, but in a picture like this one, the giveaway is most often something awry in the background . . . Not to mention the sheer impossibility of this scenario.

We're using this image as part of the promotion for my course Controlled Chaos: Teacher Tom's Guide to Play-Based Learning. We wanted something that reflected how it sometimes feels, from the inside, to be a play-based educator in the midst of children experiencing genuine freedom.

Over the years, I've taken thousands of pictures of children at play at Woodland Park and elsewhere. For obvious reasons, most of the photos you see on this blog are of hands (where the action is), the tops of heads (the adult perspective), or long shots that show children doing cool stuff at a distance. The occasional child's face that appears here is included with permission from a parent. 

When seeking out a photo to use to promote this course, I figured it would be easy to find a classroom or playground shot that evoked that feeling of controlled chaos, but as I combed through my collection, every photo instead evoked calm focus. That surprised me. Even images from days that had nearly overwhelmed me in the moment showed self-possessed children busy asking and answering their own questions. The wildness, the over-the-topness, and the emotion, had been largely erased by the act of turning my subjective reality into an objective photograph. We tried finding stock photography images that capture that controlled chaos feeling, but with similar results: they either evoked simple happiness or anxiety or nothing at all.

What I like about this AI image is that while it is hardly a direct representation of physical reality, it evokes, for me, that controlled chaos that sits at the center of much of our experience as play-based educators. "Classroom management" in the standard sense is all about controlling children, whereas for us, it's about setting children free, trusting them, and yes, sometimes holding our breath as they take it right to the edge. It often does feel exactly like this stampede of babies in tutus. 

This process has revealed to me how powerfully our experiences are shaped by perspective, especially in our roles as teachers. The whole in-control/out-of-control dynamic is something centered within each of us, often evoking strong emotions that actually have little to do with what's going on in the world around us. 

There was one day when we were discussing "compliments" during circle time. I made the statement that "compliments are things you say to people to make them feel good." This led to the children wanting to compliment one another -- to make one another feel good. It started in a controlled way, with everyone taking turns, but rapidly became a kind of free-for-all with the children racing about, hugging one another, and saying, "I love you." As delightful as this might sound from the perspective of words on a screen, in the moment, as things ramped up, as the hugs became more assertive, as the volume of giddy squealing rose, I went on high alert, worried I guess that, as mom used to say, someone was going to put an eye out or something.

Recalling how I'd felt, I specifically sought out the photos I'd taken in that moment, certain that one of those would perfectly represent controlled chaos. What I found was a collection of sweet pictures of young children embracing one another, their expressions were both joyful and peaceful, their bodies relaxed. It seems that only I had experienced chaos.

The feelings we have as adults are real, but reality isn't always as it seems. Our catastrophic imaginations too often lead us to feel that if we allow children to move freely, to follow their own designs, the ask and answer their own questions, we'll lose all control. But as I looked through all those photos, I found myself wondering, Lose control of what? Myself? Because the children in my photos, the perspective from outside, were pictures of self-control and self-direction, the gold standards for play-based learning.

I suspect none of us will ever experience an actual stampede of Burning Man babies charging toward us, but it sometimes feels that way. It's what we do about that feeling that matters to both ourselves and the children.

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Here's the link to learn more and get on the waitlist for "Controlled Chaos: Teacher Tom's Guide to Play-Based Classroom Management."

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