Saturday, November 10, 2012
***How my friend's school "label" affected him - A MUST READ!!!!***
I was visiting with a family friend today when he shared with me his experiences in school. He told me that he hated school because reading was difficult for him. When students struggle with reading, unfortunately, most of school can be grueling. Because of this, he acted out in school and purposely did things to irritate his teachers. He said, "if school is going to be this hard, I'm going to make it hard on my teachers." He acquired a label as a result of his learning difficulties and behaviors. He told me that he did not make "good" grades throughout school, and didn't think it seemed to matter what he did because that was the expectation placed on him. However, he went to college, made better grades, and even landed himself on the Dean's List. His parents were confused as to how this happened. He told me that when he went to college he didn't have any labels and desired to work hard for himself. I find it sad that he was labeled, for one. Two, I find it sad that expectations were set low. My friend is actually very bright, can think outside the box, has more common sense than most people I know, but just struggles with reading. Just think of how much his school could have offered him had he not been labeled? He had the motivation and desire to work hard, but teachers quick to place labels damaged him. I use the word "damage" because he spoke to me with anger and resentment as he explained his terrible experience in the school system. I'm so impressed that once he got to college he was able to shake off the labels and work hard for his own desires and ambitions - not all have this experience. This is just one more reminder of how critical it is that we provide a home court advantage to all students, and that we afford them all the same opportunities for learning.
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Thank you for posting this and for reminding us that we often do not realize the things we do that affect students now and in their future, but should be very mindful of our influence. Ten years ago, I would have said that retention in younger primary grades was the best place for kids that just needed a boost, but then my daughter had a friend in middle school that was retained in kindergarten that really affected him negatively. Kids often teased him about flunking the easiest grade ever and how he must really have issues. We need to think of the short-term and long-term effects our decisions put on our students.
ReplyDeleteThank you for replying, Angela. I completely agree with you about retention. Also, we have such a huge responsibility to our students. It's sometimes scary to think of how much we do influences them and about how our decisions can affect them long-term.
DeleteThanks for the post Tiffany! Sometimes, a student may qualify for additional support in a given area such as reading. However, we need to take into account the feelings and thoughts of the student we are working with when providing the additional support. I can think of one particular student that I worked with in my resource room for a while and we were not making progress. However, when a regular education teacher invited me into her classroom to team teach, this student stepped up to the plate and improved both academically and behaviorally.
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding, Eric. You are right, we do have to consider our student's feelings and how our decisions can impact them and their school experience. Thank you for sharing the story about your student. That's great that you were willing to try what worked.
DeleteLabels can be a hard thing and can have lasting feelings. Again, schools place so much emphasis on reading and math. If a student struggles in these areas the system tiers them even if that might mean missing out on the area of education that they have the most talent and interest in.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it is important to serve the student in the way that best meets their needs. I really hope that we are getting away from teachers that have the approach of running things the way they always think it should be done rather than assessing the student needs and finding the best ways to make them feel that home court advantage.
In the case of your friend: Do you think he would have benefited more from being able to spend that time in an area of interest?
Thank you for responding, Brian. Yes, I do think my friend would have benefited more from spending time in an area of interest. He's a carpenter by trade (and a really good one - perfectionist!) and could have also benefited from hands-on projects. Maybe that would have kept him out of trouble as well. :) I love your comment about getting away from "this is how it's always been". We have to meet students where they are.
DeleteOf course, being a sped teacher, I felt your friend's reaction was right on target! I saw many kids "act out", because it is so much cooler to be the class clown or "bad" kid than it is to be seen as "stupid" by one's peers! We can so set up providing support to kids without labeling kids! Kids at RES WANTED to come with me to learn because they had no idea I was a sped teacher...they just knew I was the cool teacher that did fun things when I was team teaching and when kids came to my room.
ReplyDeleteBrian, you bring up another great point on this issue...TIME!! How do we find the time to provide students what they need without them missing out on the things they love?!?! A million dollars to anyone who figures that one out! :)
I love what you did at RES. Katie does a great job of making sure that my kids don't miss out on anything special going on in the classroom, and I'm thankful for that. I only wish she had time to team teach, but she is spread thin. :)
DeleteIt never failed that when I wrote IEP's I was going to need to find 30-60 minutes to pull a student to work on reading or math. When did this happen-science, social studies or other non reading and math times. It isn't right that we took the students out of these subject areas but when reading and math have been the focus it's hard not to. I'm sure there are better ways but I'll admit that I pulled students from these subjects to help support reading and math.
ReplyDeleteI think that the project Brian and Dave are working on could be one way to help solve this problem of students missing out on the subjects they love. If the students had an opportunity after school for a free activity that involved science, social studies or other subjects that they enjoyed that would allow them to still experience those areas.
I think it would be great to come up with a cool name for the resource room so that it set it up as a fun place to learn and that way kids didn't care if they were going there, they just knew it was fun and they could get the help they needed.
Thank you for responding, Jenny. I love your idea of coming up with a cool name for the resource room! I also hope as well that Dave and Brian's project can provide some extra enrichment in the area of choice for students.
DeleteWow, I appreciated all the above reflections from so many of you. I'm proud to share that our intermediate resource teacher at WES is one special lady. She is awesome and would go to the end of the earth to meet the needs of our students. She worked side to side with the classroom teacher and we planned together every week to make sure each child was included in all projects and adaptations were in place to meet each of their needs. The outcomes resulted in confident children and happy parents.
ReplyDeleteI know most of you fairly well and would love to have you as my child's teacher as well.
Keep up the excellent work!