Aug

14

I Used to Be Naive

Filed Under Goals | 2 Comments

If you were to ask me what my goals for my at risk students are, I’d have to say the answer would pretty much depend on which day you asked me. On a good day, most days thankfully, I’d say I want my students to be happy, self-actualized persons. On a bad day, I’d say I just want them to be taxpayers. On a bad day, I don’t care if they’re happy or not. I just want them to graduate and pay taxes. Pretty cynical, I’d say. But, I never used to be like that. I used to be naive.

When I first started teaching, I wanted my students to love poetry. Yes, poetry. I “knew” that if I introduced poetry to them in the just right way, they’d love it as much as I did. (See, I told you I used to be naive.) When I told my Department Head one of my goals was to get my students to love poetry, he looked at me somewhat sternly and advised me that my goal should be to make my students taxpayers. If I made them taxpayers, I would be doing my job. I was appalled. What a cynic! I hoped I’d never be like that. Ironically, today my goal is to help my students become taxpayers, but with a twist- taxpayers happy in their jobs and in their lives.

How do I go about doing this? I spend a lot of time helping my students get to know themselves. In class, they discover their strengths and weaknesses and how to use this knowledge to help themselves become successful, in school and out. My students discover that :

  1. Successful people have goals. Having a goal is something to aim for, something to do, something to look forward to.
  2. Successful people know their strengths and weaknesses. They use their strengths to help them be successful. There’s no point in working at a job that entails a lot of math if you hate math. You’re not going to be good at it or happy doing it.
  3. Successful people persevere until they reach their goal. They don’t quit when the going gets tough. They dig deep and keep going until they succeed.
  4. Successful people have emotional support. They have people in their lives who are there for them in the good times and in the bad. You can’t do it alone.
  5. Successful people advocate for themselves. They stand up for themselves and make sure that what has to happen does happen.

Once my students are aware of the characteristics of successful people, I give them the opportunity to develop and strengthen these characteristics. My lessons are all about: discovering strengths, weaknesses and interests; setting realistic goals; developing and practicing perseverance; improving people skills; and, developing and applying self-advocacy skills. My grade eleven and twelve students use what they have learned to plan for the future of work or post secondary school; my grade nine and ten student use what they have learned to help them stay in school and graduate. Now, I’d like to be able to say that all my at risk students graduate, get jobs they like and are happy with their lives. I’d like to say that, but remember I used to be naive.



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