...to hope this isn't actually the norm nowadays?

[poisoningpidgeysinthepark]

I was invited to give a little talk about my work at a children's event, just 10 minutes or so. I don't work with children, so I prepared well, brought some things for them to look at, and lost a night's sleep because I was quite concerned about getting it right.
There were quite a few primary school age children there with their leaders/teachers, and some preschoolers with their parents.
After I had been introduced I tried to talk to the children, asking them lots of questions first to get them engaged, but nobody was sitting down or listening and I couldn't make myself heard because there was so much shouting and running around going on. After a bit, instead of getting the children to calm down, one of the leaders handed me a microphone so I could shout over the top of all the racket. As everyone still kept ignoring me, he cut me off before I'd even finished and that was that.
The whole thing left me feeling very deflated. I assumed that I just wasn't cut out for that kind of thing and it was my fault. But actually, having stewed for a bit, I'm getting a bit annoyed. Is this kind of rude behaviour normal nowadays, or did I just catch them on a bad day?

What kind of “event” was it?

Sorry pressed too soon.

Meant to add that obviously dc should of sit and listen and I would imagine most would. But if you were in the middle of a soft play centre then it may be a bit more difficult to get yourself heard.

Ignore the extra of

A children's event with leaders may not be run as strictly as a classroom. Was there a lot of distractions? Can you shed a bit more light?

Having said that i've worked in a couple of classrooms where the teacher couldn't control their primary class, and they'd just shout the lesson over their heads.

is this kind of rude behaviour normal nowadays, or did I just catch them on a bad day?

If the definition of 'normal' is frequent, usual, often = yes, sadly so.
If the definition of 'normal' is customary, traditional, or expected = no, absolutely not.

Disgraceful. The parents of these children should be ashamed, as should the teacher.

I work in a school as a breakfast club/ midday person ( so not a teacher or anything like that ) but I think that this was out of order. The teacher should have clapped their hands and asked for quiet. They would have done at the school where I work - the head teacher is very good at getting the children to be silent when its needed and someone should have told them to sit still and listen to you instead of just being rude and talking all over you. I would have been annoyed as well.

Hmm. I'd be the first to say that behaviour in school children is pretty bad. But... I'm a secondary teacher and have taught a bit of primary. The younger primary school children, and certainly preschoolers, do not have much of a concentration span, and don't really do well with being talked at en masse or keeping quiet all at the same time while individuals are asked and answer questions. At an event with lots going on and lots of unfamiliar faces, it would be even harder for them.

The thing is though these were 'leaders', not 'teachers'. The children's event might of been in the middle of a circus for all we know yet The OP will let us know.

is it possible that the children were a bit too young to pay attention unless the speaker was engaging? How old were they? Are we talking 3 year olds or 12 year olds?

Lizzie - I don't think it matters what type of event it was, it sounds like the organisation was terrible. Either the organisers shouldn't have asked the OP to do a talk if it was an inappropriate venue/event or they should have got the kids to sit down and listen.

You can't expect silence with pre-schoolers but you can expect the organisers/leaders/teachers to keep the volume down to a level where the speaker can be heard.

OP, I'd have asked the organiser to get the gets to calm down. If they didn't, I'd have told them there was no point in me trying to make myself heard over the racket.

Preschoolers won't sit down and listen to a talk. They need a very engaging storyteller or something. They're not designed to sit down and listen. So that probably got it off to a bad start. Primary school children should be able to sit still and listen, but the younger ones might get overexcited if there are loads of nursery kids running about or it's an exciting event.

Why didn't you control the situation and have them sit down or ask adults to have them sit down?

I meant to say, it's one thing keeping a bunch of primary kids focussed in a contained classroom environment where they are in a routine and they are all under the instruction of one adult and all doing the same thing. A whole bunch of random kids at an event, whose parents might not all have the same expectations of them is a whole different ballgame. Once one is running around shouting, it's a slippery slope!

SandSnakeofDorne
Preschoolers won't sit down and listen to a talk. They need a very engaging storyteller or something. They're not designed to sit down and listen.

Yet over generations, miraculously preschoolers did sit down and listen to a talk. Perhaps they were designed differently.

Welll... it depends a lot on what type of event it was/how it was set up and who was in charge! It sounds like maybe there wasn’t a set,single leader to take control/who had responsibility? And whether it was outside or inside (much harder to keep control outside one) But yes, I would expect school age children to be able to sit quietly-ish for an external speaker. But, I would also expect said speaker to take control of needbe (right, everyone sit down - Little you there, if you want to hear about Xx Sit down for a bit and I’ll tell you about yyyy)
I’ve run things at schools and have absolutely expected crowd control to be part of my role!

I think it depends on the event.Without context, it's impossible to say. fwiw my friend gave a talk to a group of pre-schoolers about her work and they all engaged but her talk was very much geared to that age group and included colouring sheets, cartoons, etc.

Preschoolers won't sit down and listen to a talk

Some won't but if it's won't rather than can't then they can be made to. Schools do it all the time with Reception children who are often still pre-school age.

Sorry, it was a fun day type of thing for beavers/cubs to which parents and siblings were also invited. There were lots of activities and talks, one at a time (indoors). I wasn’t that boring, honest!
I didn’t control the situation because I was a guest and I didn’t want to do anything I wasn’t supposed to. I haven’t been in a situation where I was surrounded by young children since I was their age, about 25 years ago, when things were obviously a bit different.

Having worked in a primary school for 8 years i've seen huge success and great failure when it comes to engaging young kids. There's a knack, and circumstances have to be at least half right.

In the wrong circumstances i believe jesus himself would fail to get them all to sit and listen!

I think the tone you use to get 'untrained' preschoolers to sit and listen is very different to that of older children, so poor OP must have struggled. Even asking questions, were these questions pre schoolers could have engaged with or understood. Were the preschoolers 4yo or 2yo?

Oh absolute bollocks that preschoolers used to sit down and listen to talks. When were the my naughty little sister books set?

Reception children are, by definition, not preschoolers.

Given that it was a beavers/cubs event I am guessing that there weren't any teachers there at all.

SandSnakeofDorne

Oh absolute bollocks that preschoolers used to sit down and listen to talks.

So you're saying all the documentary proof of preschoolers sitting down politely and listening, and my own factual experience of doing so, is all fictitious? So the BBC concocted some great conspiracy did they to pretend this didn't happen? And I'm lying about my experience, and that of my children, lived and seen with my own eyes?

When were the my naughty little sister books set?
What the heck does a book about a naughty little sister (written in the 1950s by the way) have to do with a group of preschoolers failing to show respect to an adult, sit still and listen?

Bonkers.

It sounds like it was a completely badly planned and thought through event on the part of the organisers, and if I were you and speak to them about what a rude waste of time it was for you, and tell them they need to try harder to either think about what is appropriate for the audience or to get the audience to shut up.