As we know, most of the child caregivers we see are females.  Thatis probably because a female represents a figure that is closest to amother, therefore is easily related by a young child. People relatequalities like soft spoken, loving, gentle, caring, patient andforgiving to females and therefore feel more comfortable if theirchildren are taken care by female caregivers. I felt the same way andthat was why I was little concerned when I heard that then eight-monthold Evan’s primary teacher was Mr. Chuck, the only male teacher in thefour infant suites.

Ofcourse, I was immediately ensured by the head teacher of the classroomthat Mr. Chuck was very capable of taking care of infants and very goodwith the children. He had been in another infant class for the previousyear and children loved him.

Onone hand, I have to admit that his decision to be an infant teacher wasintriguing to me. He must be good/special in some ways to be qualifiedfor this position. On the other hand, looking at the infants lyingaround the room, some as young as 7 weeks old, half of them screaming,I was curious how would he, a man in his early thirties, deals withthis on a day to day basis. So half believing and half doubting, westarted Evan’s daycare journey.

Needlessto say it can be very stressful working in infant suites as you have totake care as many as four or five infants at the same time, who totallyrely on you and some of them just like to cry and they can not tell youwhy.  I definitely can not do it but Mr. Chuck seems to have the perfect qualities to deal with little babies.

Firstof all, he always smiles when he talks and seems always in a good mood,which is amazing. Second, he is extremely polite and always speaks withthis gentle caring voice, whether to the parents or to the children. Hegives you full attention when he talks to you and never leaves yourquestions unanswered. I have never seen him loosing patience trying tocomfort a screaming baby. He held them in his arm, rocked them, talkedto them or sang lullabies. In fact he seemed more patient than some of the female teachers I saw in the suite.  

Mr.Chuck also did an excellent job creating Evan’s portfolio, lots of goodpictures and detailed annotations recorded every single step of Evan’sgrowth during his first year in daycare. We consider Evan’s portfolioone of the most precious gift we received. 

BecauseMr. Chuck’s schedule was the same as ours, Evan got to spend most ofthe time with him during the day. Very soon, the head teacher told methat Evan and Mr. Chuck bonded so well that he would not allow anyother teachers to feed him (see picture).

Evan was a late crawler just like his sister and I had asked Mr. Chuck to help him to learn whenever he could. I will never forget one scene I saw during a pick up one dark winter night two years ago.

Iwas running late picking up the kids and they were obviously the lastfew left in daycare. I rushed into the daycare and turned right to thelong hallway leading to the Infant suites to pick Evan up.  There,in the middle of the hall way between me and Evan’s classroom, were twofigures crawling towards me, one very big, one tiny. I was in shock fora second wondering what that big figure was. Then I recognized it wasMr. Chuck crawling side by side with Evan. He was cheering him up“Yeah, Evan! Good job, Evan.” Hearing the cheering, Evan went laughingand crawled even faster, almost lost his balance. I was surprised anddeeply touched by this scene. I did not expect a daycare teacher toactually get down to his knees to crawl with my son. Have you adultstried it? It hurts!

Itwas through small things like this that Mr. Chuck showed us hisdedication as a child caregiver. I was very pleased with the care heprovided to Evan and I gave my vote for the Award of Excellence to himwithout any hesitation.

AfterEvan finished his infant class, Mr. Chuck moved along with him into theyoung toddler class. He was the one who suggested to us that it wasbetter for Evan to have another primary teacher so that he can have theexperience of bonding with a new teacher which was important. Wefollowed his advice and after another year, Mr. Chuck remained in thesame class while Evan moved up. They still get to see each other a lotin the gallery or playing in the hall ways. Evan would still mentionhim once in a while.

Iwonder how long he will remember Mr. Chuck, his very first teacher. We,of course, will always remember him and feel thankful that Evan got tospent two years with a wonderful teacher like Mr.Chuck.