The Skittles Dilemma strikes at the heart of what we value in education. When a preschool teacher refuses to give candy rewards to a challenging student, despite pressure from colleagues, she sparks a profound conversation about what messages our classroom management techniques send to children.

This episode examines a situation many educators face: a child exhibiting difficult behaviors (aggression, defiance, running away) has been moved from kindergarten back to preschool. While other teachers manage these behaviors by rewarding minimal compliance with Skittles, our featured teacher questions what values this approach actually reinforces. Does bribing children with candy help their development, or does it create troubling transactional relationships?

We explore how behavior serves as children's language—telling us about their unmet needs—and how our responses reveal our own priorities and beliefs. The conversation tackles tough questions: Are our educational systems designed primarily for efficiency and compliance, or for supporting each child's developmental journey? What happens when teachers aren't allowed to physically redirect children during dangerous situations? How might we build classroom communities where norms are created together rather than imposed from above?

Do you know what values you are reinforcing in your interactions with children? Join us for this thought-provoking conversation about aligning our educational practices with our deepest values.

The moment perfectly illustrated our dilemma: a young child gently swinging in a fabric hammock suspended just a foot above the classroom floor, while the observing teacher wrestled with competing concerns – "What if the child falls and gets hurt?" versus "Doesn't this child need to explore and take risks?"

This tension between safety and necessary risk-taking forms the heart of our conversation as we dig into one of education's most fundamental questions: How do we reconcile our responsibility to keep children safe with their developmental need to take chances?

Join us as we advocate for seeing children as capable participants in their own growth journey. By trusting children's abilities while providing attentive support, we can create learning environments where both safety and healthy risk-taking coexist – ultimately preparing children not just for school success, but for life itself.

What happens when we let children decide when they're hungry? One teacher's question about student-directed snack time opens a fascinating exploration of how our classroom control systems might be impacting children's development in unexpected ways.

Research reveals that eating self-regulation shares the same brain processes as cognitive self-regulation. This means that when children practice listening to their bodies' hunger cues, they're simultaneously building neural pathways that support executive functioning, emotional regulation, and learning. As our conversation unfolds, we examine how these same issues of bodily autonomy and control extend from preschool snack tables to high school bathroom pass systems.

Join us as we explore how stepping back might be exactly what children need to step up.

Have you ever caught yourself saying "he's just like his father" or "she gets that from me"? That seemingly innocent comparison might be doing more harm than you realize. 

Our conversation dives deep into the phenomenon of adult projection - how parents and teachers unconsciously assign their own personality traits, fears, and thinking patterns to children. This natural tendency serves as a bonding ritual but creates serious obstacles to truly understanding children as unique individuals with their own internal processes.

Through vulnerable personal stories, we explore how projection prevents developmental attunement and responsive relationships. This is for all of us in relationships. Join in! 

Welcome to Children Think: A Podcast by bloom! This is a podcast about children for teachers. Hosted by bloom! Synergists. bloom! is an organization that helps teachers imbed child development into classrooms. Join us as we host conversations that will spark curiosity about the children in your classrooms. How do they think? What do they think? How does your thinking impact their thinking? What do children really need from schools and is it different from what teachers want from children? Our goal is to leave you with knowledge that will ultimately help create a learning community and meet children just where they are. We believe, when adults step back, children step up. 

Listen as we introduce Lesa Vartanian, she is a bloom! Synergist. We will get to hear her story, her work and how she became part of the bloom team.

For more information on bloom! and our work, please visit our website at
 www.bloom-children.com

We look forward to thinking with you! 

Welcome! bloom! is an organization that helps teachers imbed child development into classrooms. Join us as we host conversations that will spark curiosity about the children in your classrooms. Our goal is to leave you with knowledge that will ultimately help create a learning community and meet children just where they are. We believe, when adults step back, children step up. 

Thank you for joining us today on our 2nd episode of children think. Often it is wondered…How is order established in a classroom? Is it the use of control? Or is there another way?  

In this episode we are going to talk about our innate desire for order and the reasoning behind that desire. Then later in the episode we will hear from teachers about their experience with order, how they applied it to their classrooms, and the paradigm shift they experienced that transformed their classrooms to meeting children just where they are.