Preschoolers grow accustomed to turning to their parents for emotional and psychological support, as well as physical safety. The preschool teacher takes on the support role for the young child first going to school. Support means that the teacher not only ensures that the environment is a safe place to learn, but that the child can talk to another authority figure that can be trusted in times of insecurity, fear or confusion. Moreover, support also means that the teacher will support the child's efforts to achieve goals, overcome obstacles and continue to grow as a student.
While the teacher's job is to instruct, the preschooler also looks to the teacher as a source of knowledge about everything -- from the ABCs to why the sky is blue. This type of relationship naturally grows as the student develops trust for the teacher and feels that she can pose any problem -- both educational and personal -- to the teacher and get an answer.
Although most teachers do not overtly teach morality in the classroom as lessons, they do teach moral behavior through several avenues. As examples, teachers develop classroom rules insisting that students respect one another in the classroom, and they counsel students who are caught telling lies when needed. In addition, teachers build their students' moral attitudes through demonstrating what is right and wrong in their own behavior, with most students attempting to model their behaviors after their teacher's.
Any parent who has raised a preschool child knows that when the child enters preschool, he will often come home and challenge a parent's authority with rules that he has learned for the classroom. For example, the preschooler may suggest that if someone wishes to talk at the dinner table, he or she must raise a hand. Or, if a parent interrupts the child while talking, the parent must go in time out. This is the result of the preschooler-teacher relationship that the child has established with the teacher at school and that serves as the basis for the child's behavior throughout his educational career.