Dr. Tamar Jacobson

Dr. Tamar Jacobson, assistant professor of teacher education, is dedicated to helping teachers relate effectively to children. In her new book, Don’t Get So Upset! Help Young Children Manage Their Feelings by Understanding Your Own, to be published by RedLeaf Press next year, Jacobson says that the first step for each teacher is to look inward.

“The teaching profession has learned much about emotional development and the importance of brain development in the early years, yet little is being done to support teacher self-reflection, especially in relation to how teachers feel about children's challenging behaviors,” said Jacobson, a native of the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

“This handbook will help them make connections between how they were disciplined as children, and how they set boundaries for children in their classrooms,” said Jacobson. “I address a host of feelings such as sadness, love, anger, disappointment, fear, jealousy and joy. I want readers to look inside themselves for clues, memories and associations that help them become acquainted with how they learned to express or repress their emotions when they were growing up.”

Accounts in the book are based on Jacobson’s years in the classroom and experiences as a professor. Her observations come from memories from childhood and early adulthood.

As a pre-school and kindergarten teacher in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel, Jacobson remembers how the children in her class looked to her for support in various situations, particularly when it came to painful instances of teasing. She believes teachers should be prepared to help defuse situations by first tapping into their own defense mechanisms. Her goal is to one day organize or facilitate support-supervision groups for teachers to confront their emotions or biases head-on.

“While reading Haim Ginott’s Between Parent and Child in the early ’70s for one of my child psychology courses, I realized whatever I say and do can affect a child for the rest of his or her life,” said Jacobson. “It is crucial to validate and acknowledge our feelings and their feelings. Sometimes this type of self-reflection is painful or uncomfortable, and yet there is a high price if we choose to ignore it.”

According to Jacobson, an abundance of literature exists regarding behavior management techniques – the “how to” and “what to do” in disciplinary situations when challenging student behaviors arise. However, there is a paucity of literature in the area of confronting your own emotions and biases head-on, or how teacher bias can impact children.

Jacobson, who arrived at Rider last fall, is coordinator of the early childhood minor. She also teaches and supervises the student teaching of early childhood students and coordinates the curriculum for early childhood graduate courses.

“I enjoy teaching at Rider,” said Jacobson. “I believe the most important aspect of life is human connections and relationships, and I enjoy conveying that to new teachers.”

She currently serves as vice president of membership for the New Jersey Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators.

“I hope to broaden my students’ perspectives,” said Jacobson. When we, as teachers, are clear about why we do what we do, our interactions, decisions and choices will ultimately be beneficial for all children’s well being and academic achievement. We have an awesome responsibility. Our subtle and subconscious reactions to children when they need us most can affect them for the rest of their lives.”

 

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