Ms Donova: ‘So, let's get acquainted! My name is Ms Donova. We will be talking and studying with you over the next few years. Let's get to know each of you better.’
She clicked one of the buttons on her mysterious pen and dimmed the lights in the room to semi-darkness. A spotlight came on over the circle in which the children were gathered. The floor inside this circle was coloured bright red, which was black striped into sectors according to the number of people inside it. It looked like a disproportionately marked clock with sixteen divisions. The teacher pressed the button of her fountain pen again and the sector she was in turned green. While the rest of the circle continued to burn red. The woman rose from her seat, and walked to the centre of the circle. The children watched the change of colours inside the circle with their eyes darting around in amazement. They kept shifting their gaze from the multi-coloured circle to the teacher holding a strange fountain pen in her hand.
Ms. Donova: ‘I want you, when you see the colour green in front of you, to come to the centre and say your name’.
She demonstrated what she wanted the children to do by example by repeating her surname. She then took her place in the circle and pressed the button again. The green sector moved anti-clockwise and positioned itself in front of the boy sitting next to her. He looked with interest at the glowing green triangle inviting him to take the first step. The teacher repeated her request, turning towards him, ‘Please come forward and tell me your name.’
The little boy got off his chair and with slow steps made his way to the centre of the circle, patting the glowing section. Donova repeated: ‘Tell me your name.’ The boy, merrily shaking his head from side to side, reached the centre of the circle and after a little stomping in one place said loudly and clearly, ‘Derek. My name is Derek!’
The pupil, with all his seriousness, looked at the teacher, waiting for her to praise him for his accomplished task. She nodded in response, clapped her hands and said: ‘Well done. Nice to meet you Derek. You can go back to your seat.’
The boy stood in the centre for a while longer, enjoying the attention and the sense of accomplishment, and with the same leisurely steps he reached his chair and then sat on it. So each of the kids introduced themselves in turn, stepping out into the circle. The one who was less concentrated and comprehensible Mrs Donova took him to the centre by the hand and repeated her request several times. Finally, it was Theodore's turn. His sector lit up green and everyone stared at him.
Ted understood perfectly well what he was required to do, so based on the example of the previous kids he leisurely went to the centre of the circle and said his name. After that he remained standing in the same place, scrutinising those present. Throwing a glance outside the circle, he noticed the parents of his classmates watching their every move with awe. Looking at one and the other, he tried to spot Lars in the crowd of people he didn't know, but he never found him.
At the age of three, children cannot yet analyse their parents' actions, build a logical chain and conclude whether they are well taken care of or not. They do not know how to take offence over the long term, as their life now consists of momentary emotions. For example, at the moment he feels good because he was given a lollipop, but five minutes later he feels bad because it was taken away. This was approximately the stage of development of the child logic of Ted and his classmates, which the teachers had to develop by the end of the CEC training and bring it to a completely different level.
Mrs Donova: ‘Theodore, you can take your seat. Let's give your other classmates a chance to introduce themselves.’
At the moment of finding his father among the crowd of people standing in front of the boy, strangers to him, he felt nothing. No sadness, no regret. The only thought circling in his head was that his dad wasn't around.
After a couple of small and uncomplicated orientation sessions, the teacher said goodbye to the parents and the group started the next lesson in the drawing room. On the first day, the children reacted differently to their parents leaving. Some cried and were hysterical, others were unwavering and didn't give it a second thought. Theodore felt some relief when the adults left the little ones alone with their teacher. Ted was no different from the other children now. The only difference was that when Lars left him home alone, the boy was left to his own devices. But now, there were other children in the same room with him. Some of them even began to socialise with each other, increasing the general interest in the task at hand.
On the one hand, it was another familiarisation task for the newcomers, which everyone could handle without much difficulty, as everyone in the group understood what a family was. On the one hand, it was another familiarisation task for the newcomers, which each of them could cope with without much difficulty, because everyone in the group understood perfectly well what a family was. Everyone except Theodore. The kids sat down on the colourful floor, armed with markers and pencils, and began to draw banal pictures of suns, clouds, circles and sticks resembling human beings. Davel was the only one who sat still and did not understand what he had to draw on a piece of paper. No one had ever talked to him about family. The boy saw the children around him drawing with interest, but he had no interest in the class. Several times Mrs Donova came up to him and explained the task again, sketching ideas and projecting them on her piece of paper.
The time of the class was drawing to a close, and Theodore's sheet of paper remained as blank as it had originally been. Finally, he picked up a dark brown pencil that was lying nearby and began to paint the sheet a solid colour, trying his best not to leave any white gaps. Maybe he was embarrassed that he was the only kid who hadn't drawn a picture, or maybe Ted just wanted to keep himself busy.
The children began to hand in their work to the teacher. The teacher came up to each of them in turn and accepted their work. Theodore handed her a piece of paper on which a rectangle had been carefully drawn with a brown pencil. He looked at the tutor, waiting for any reaction. Mrs Donova smiled at the boy, stroked his head and encouraged him: ‘Well, there, you see! You, too, have succeeded in your own way in drawing a picture on a given theme. In time, you'll learn a lot more from us here!’.
Ted smiled back when he felt that no one was going to scold him. He had done a thorough job in his own way and was being praised for it. On the wave of positivity that swept over him, the boy walked over to the other boys who, without the teacher's instruction, had arranged themselves in a circle and were drawing something together.
It was lunchtime for Theodore's group. The children, led by Mrs Donova, went up to the third floor to eat a three-course set lunch specially prepared for them for the first time in their lives. The canteen staff also joined in to help the kindergarteners in shrinking the students. It was extremely difficult for one adult to cope with the still unorganised group of kids who saw plates of food placed on small tables. Despite the fact that the children could already sit on ordinary chairs and stools, at the first stage, in order to teach them discipline, the canteen was equipped with seats with small straps that were pulled over the waist of the children and fixed them in one place, not allowing them to move freely around the room.
There was a lot of temptation at the beginning, as the food was served based on the usual diet of the pupils of the educational centre. It was balanced, filled with all the necessary useful vitamins and minerals to maintain their health. The food was adjusted individually, depending on whether a particular pupil was allergic to certain types of food, or simply because he or she refused to eat one or another product.
For example, if a child does not eat broccoli, it can easily be replaced by carrots or cabbage, thus preserving the vitamins that he or she should get after eating. All caring parents, in most cases, have prepared in advance and provided the principal with lists of foods to be more careful about and to avoid. In Theodore's case, there was no such list at all. Lars replied dryly when questioned by the headmistress: ‘Yes, he eats everything. You can feed him whatever you want.’
So Theodore had to personally try the delicacies of the children's kitchen and find out for himself what he liked and what he didn't like.
Ted was taken by the hand by one of the canteen