“When I let go of my blinders that kept my view on only what they hadn’t yet achieved, I started to notice sparks of brilliance and that’s how I came to see brilliance inside of them waiting to be appear on paper. And that was the first step toward their seeing their own and their friends’ brilliance as well.” Carrie Symons, 5th grade teacher
When O was a senior in high school, her stream of consciousness reflection on students who were struggling defined a theme for me.
“…The people who do succeed—all comes down to race and ethnicity—your parents crossed the border so you can succeed. How can you succeed when you have…well…Teachers want you to succeed but they don’t understand. How do they expect for you to find your support but they don’t know you’re lacking support everywhere? You have to face so much. How are you supposed to do homework when you have so much going on that is not about school—your mom says come help me do this you have to go help your mom.”
O was, at that time, at the top of her class, national merit scholar, participant and leader in countless school and community activities, international travel including shadowing a doctor in India for two weeks. She was not making excuses for lack of achievement. These words came pouring out of he, describing a life situation she shares with many other kids she knows who have not broken through the obstacles as she had at that time.
She had countless stories of individual kids and their despair, their turning to other coping skills that did’t lead to success in a mainstream culture. She recognized that many teachers are there wanting to help. And she sighed that they don’t know how to help. She said, “I can describe it to them but they don’t know that experience.”
O reminds me of the details, the human face behind the statistics of disengagement, the failure of good intentions to connect every child to a constructive path.
Her words give me courage to take risks to aim for the heart of the matter.
One of our big challenges is understanding and interpreting our students’ behaviors and attitudes across the differences in experience and background. Whether it is because of just being their age in these rapidly changing times or because of skin color, language, ethnicity, the list goes on forever. The differences are vast. We need to be able to recognize the differences as well as the personal traits and experiences we may share as human beings, even when they show up differently.
D, a young teacher, thought he could just offer his students an opportunity for what seemed like a meaningful project to him and they would jump in with appreciation. When they didn’t, he might have given up on the project and/or the kids as just not worthy. But he had seen them engage in hard work on previous writing projects. He knew they had a wealth of opinions and ideas. He had heard their stories, just as I had heard O’s so he knew something about their concerns.
With an open mind to watch and listen, he decided to shift his perspective from their lack of motivation to what he could provide to hook them.
There were two relatively simple steps that, coincidentally, are often included in many experienced teachers’ list of best practice. He showed them a range of examples that included content that they found interesting so they could develop a vision for what they would write. Then he provided the organizational steps and skills to support their success in the process that included tasks and deadlines.
When their teacher shifted his perspective on his role in helping them develop their capacity, when he stopped blaming them for not doing their work and instead looked for how to ignite the spark that he believed was in each of them, students’ perspectives on what they could accomplish also shifted.
If we are able to extend our vision for teaching and learning with our students, they will follow our lead. Change can happen.