Getting Down to Eye Level

Years back I posted this little drawing. It's about perspective.

Drawn by my then four year old friend Troy and brought to me with a smile. I glanced at his drawing, not entirely sure what I was actually supposed to see. Looking again, I saw big googly eyes and smiles. I commented to my little friend on the faces he'd drawn. He looked at the paper and smiled himself. But this little boy hadn't been drawing smiling faces at all.

When I turned the paper around the drawing's initial intent came into focus. I suddenly saw, quite clearly, what fascinates many little boys, mine included. He'd been drawing cars. Cars with wheels and windows. It was all so obvious that I laughed at myself.

The classroom at my new job is full of small children, children who desperately need a few adults willing to take a moment to turn "the paper" around and look at life from the perspective of a child. Theses little ones are barely out of babyhood, most still in diapers, and struggling to make their words heard and understood. Not all the adults are willing to get down on their knees, eye level with a child, and look at the world from his point of view. You might think daycare centers are full of people like that, but it isn't necessarily true. Some big people expect an awful lot from those little people.