The meaning of the dots lined up on the morning glory observation card.

The time for life studies that day was an activity where each student filled out an observation card about the growth of the morning glory they had planted in their own flower pots.

Ruka-chan (a pseudonym) was also facing this way today, listening quietly.

Ruka-chan is a student with Down syndrome.
She is enrolled in a special support class and still finds it difficult to write hiragana or express her feelings in sentences on her own.

During Japanese and math classes, she studies in the special support class at a level and pace suited to her with her special support homeroom teacher.
And when she spends time in classes other than Japanese and math, such as life studies, arts and crafts, physical education, or lunch, she is accompanied by her special support homeroom teacher or an assistant teacher who watches over her and provides support for her activities.


That day, too, her support teacher, Mr. K, was by her side, interacting with her by asking, "What shall we write?" Then, he wrote the words they thought of together in light red pencil so that Ruka-chan could trace them.

"The leaves have increased."
Ruka-chan traced them carefully so as not to go outside the lines.
When she finished tracing,
"Hmm."
she said, and the face she made while showing me the printout was somehow proud and adorable.

Today, she didn't show any signs of refusal like "I don't want to," and she worked on it smoothly, so I felt relieved as I took my eyes off Ruka-chan.

A while later, when I looked at her, she had taken out the pencil she had once put away in her pencil case and was writing dots at a furious pace on the line below the observation sheet,
".................."
continuing to write dots.

While glancing at that, I thought, 'Ah, I should have collected them earlier...' and went to support a child whose pencil had stopped for a while as they wondered what to write.

A few days later, Ruka-chan's mother came to the school for the end-of-term parent-teacher conference.
She was staring intently at the "Morning Glory Observation Card" that the children had just finished, which was posted in the hallway in front of the classroom.

Ah, even though she wrote it so well, I wondered if I should have had her erase those dots at the bottom, when Mr. K, Ruka-chan's special support homeroom teacher who was standing next to me, spoke up.

“Ruka-chan seemed to find it interesting to see how the morning glory was growing, and she worked hard at watering it. Seeing the friends around her filling the lines to the end, she must have thought, 'Me too!' Ruka-chan watches the people around her very closely.
Perhaps there were other things she wanted to write besides this sentence. I thought these dots were overflowing with Ruka-chan's unspoken desire to write, so I left them as they were.”

Hearing that, the randomly lined-up dots began to look even more precious.
Ruka-chan's mother, who was listening to that story beside me, was also smiling and saying, "Is that so?" so she must have felt the same way.

As expected of Mr. K, who has long experience as a special support teacher...
I hadn't thought that far.

I suddenly wondered what I would have said if I had been supporting Ruka-chan and she had started writing a long string of dots.

I think I would have easily perceived those dots as"scribbles"and tried to make her erase them.

"Wow, you wrote that beautifully. But since you traced it so carefully, shall we erase those dots with an eraser?"
I might have said something like that.
Because a printout with scribbles on it somehow looks unsightly.

And if I had tried to erase them, Ruka-chan might have had a tantrum.

"Being close to the child," "From the child's perspective"
Such words are often cited as ideals for how to interact with children.

I know that, but I often find myself unconsciously thinking from an adult's perspective or for an adult's convenience...

Being close to a child requires our rich imagination and the composure of an adult who can take things in stride.
I realized once again, while looking back at the dots lined up on the morning glory observation card, that it is the most important thing, yet the most difficult.

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