Poop is a popular topic of conversation at preschool. The poop word is flying everywhere lately in our classroom, and it is as contagious as the common cough. Everything amounts to poop; even the snack time can be full of the use of the word. A painting becomes poopy, a glob of sand is a poopy castle, a felt princess is a poopy princess, and if the teacher gets on their nerves, a teacher can become instantly poopy. And as a teacher there are time where the poop talk really hits the fan – and enough is enough!
Poop has always maintained the social status of a rather unusual but fascinating topic of conversation, ever since humans first defecated. Even adults have had their giggles over the poop dialogue. But working in a preschool classroom the poop talk starts to really stink after prolonged talk of it.
As teachers, we will ask if, “they need to use the bathroom,” after we had our fill of it. We don’t label it as “potty talk,” but this would be a logical place to make those comments. Usually the answer is “no,” and we quickly fire back with, “then please stop.”
Were not out to incriminate them for their language or to make a major fuss over their use of language, but to at least steer them back into another topic – anything but poop.
Exploring and understanding bodily functions is a natural stage of development and how else then through the use of words. This we take into consideration, as ignoring it most of the time is more healthy and effective developmentally then “correcting.” Preschools should provide a place for poop dialogue to unravel, as this approach is less harmful then restricting it. And for some of us, we’ll never out grow the topic of poop.