Mar

7

A prescription for bad attitude

Filed Under "At-risk" students 

sd-face.jpgYou know how some days you wonder why you bother doing what you are doing. That’s how I felt today. I’m coming down with some sort of bug, and I’m really tired. I could hardly wait to get home, get a cup of tea and lie down on the sofa. While I was waiting for the kettle to boil, I thought I’d just check my e-mail. I noticed the Positive Psychology News Daily’s Summary for February message, clicked on it and found this: School that Rocks by Christine Duvivier:

People like Bertrice Berry , author of When Love Calls, You Better Answer know the difference one caring adult can make to a teen’s school experience… she said she had been an adolescent “with an attitude,” when a teacher turned her attitude around, insisting that she was capable of going to college and challenging her to do better at each step along the way.

and this:

George Vaillant notes in his book, Adaptation to Life, that some of the Harvard men (studied over their lifetimes) with miserable childhoods fared better as adults than others from more fortunate socio-economic backgrounds. One distinguishing factor– for the healthiest– was a nurturing adult relationship in childhood. Not every child is so lucky within his family, but imagine if someone in the school– where she spends nearly half her waking hours– establishes a direct nurturing connection with her and this occurs year after year, might that make the difference that it did for Bertrice?

Reading those two quotations was like a tonic. Suddenly I wasn’t tired anymore, and I remembered why I bother doing what I do. I teach at-risk kids because I can and do make a difference. :)

I continued to read:

Mike Csikszentmihalyi says that most kids today don’t have enough challenge– or resulting joy– in their lives. Sports and arts are two areas where children can express and challenge themselves, to get relief from what too many find to be the tedium of academics.

Well, we all know which programs get the axe in budget cuts- sports and arts. These are the programs that make school bearable for some kids. I talked here about a program at our school that helps at- risk kids change their “attitude”. I saw the turn around in the kids . It was amazing.

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Comments

2 Responses to “A prescription for bad attitude”

  1. Christine Duvivier on March 9th, 2007 2:51 pm

    Dear Elona,

    Sherri Fisher http://www.studentflourishing.com/ sent me a copy of your article. I was happy to hear it made a difference in your day and was especially happy to hear about the inspiring work you do every day with kids.

    I forwarded your article to Chris Martes, the school superintendent in Framingham, MA that inspired my article.

    Thanks for the work you do with kids everyday– you inspire us all (and I’m not a teacher)!
    Christine

  2. Elona on March 9th, 2007 6:28 pm

    Christine, thank you so very much for your kind words. Your article really did make a difference. Some days are just tougher than other days. As you know, there is so much controversy about the approach that should be taken with at-risk kids. I’m always explaining why the “let’s kick them out of school” approach isn’t necessarily the best one. I get accused of being “soft”. I don’t really mind that label because I know you have to be tough to be “soft”. It’s easier to get mad and kick em out! But, what good is that! We have to find ways to make it work for at-risk kids. They are, after all only kids ,and the time to make mistakes and learn lessons from your mistakes is when you are a kid. I tell my at-risk kids that they need to help other at-risk kids because they got the help that made the difference.

    Sherri, thank you for forwarding my post to Christine. I was delighted to hear from her. I agree with your philosophy (www.studentflourishing.com) of using a person’s strengths to help them succeed. In fact, my students just finished an assignment where they determined their strengths and reflected upon how they could use that information to help them be successful in school and in choosing a suitable career or hobby. They really paid attention and got the point.

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