A concerning education trend has emerged in 2023. And no, weāre not talking about AI, aliens, or the term āmenty b.ā Weāre talking about kindergartners arriving at school without being potty trained.
What was once a routine rite of passage achieved at home is now something educators are having to tackle. This question was recently raised on Reddit by an early childhood educator:
Iām in ECE, are we really sending kids to kinder and first grade in diapers?
by inTeachers
The Redditor goes on to say that they love their job working in daycare, but theyāre noticing more and more that potty training is a struggle. They note that a friend working in kindergarten reported that she has āat least one in a diaper and probably another two in pull-ups.ā āI cannot fathom this,ā the original post ends.
In one day, the post has already received more than 1,000 comments and 3.2 upvotes. Clearly, teachers had a lot to say about this question.
But surprisingly for a post with this kind of attention, there was very little dissent for the fact that this is happening everywhere.
What every commenter agreed on was that this discussion on potty training was about neurotypical children without developmental delays. Teachers know there are plenty of reasonsāboth biological and environmentalāfor why a child might not be toileting by age 5. But in recent years, instead of administration addressing the families of a handful of outliers, now teachers are reporting that theyāre responsible for the care surrounding diapering for sometimes several children per class.
Why this is happening
Naturally, most of the comments were speculations on why this is happening all of a sudden.
Misapplied parenting advice
Most responses connected back to parenting. Teachers posited that parents were either getting straight-up bad advice or misapplying good advice to an irrelevant situation.
Parents not understanding potty training
Other comments suggested that maybe parents started teaching toilet training but didnāt teach it to mastery.
The diapers themselves
One commenter didnāt dismiss the role of parents, but also offered the changes made to diapers in recent years.
Schools not being firm enough on toilet training as a prerequisite
Thereās one thing itās not ā¦
Teachers reject the notion that these delays should be excused because of (or are even connected to) COVID.
What this trend could mean for kids and for teachers
Beyond the obvious point that this is just another way teachers are expected to just roll with tasks that arenāt theirs.
Accusations of impropriety
Effects on personal safety, privacy, dignity
Teasing and bullying
Teachers confirming the trend
By far, most of the comments were reiterating the extent of the problem with examples from their workplace.
Finally, we think itās important to mention that while most neurotypical kids are totally capable of being potty trained, there are cases where parents are trying their hardest and itās just not happening.
But to the point of the bulk of the conversation happening on this Reddit thread: If we didnāt have lots of parents sending their kids to school in diapers, genuine outliers like this 5-year-old would be able to get more personalized care and attention while at school.
What are your thoughts on this issue? Let us know in the comments!
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