Teaching - lessons learned

Grace's first day of preschool - age 4

There are really very few things a teacher can do to prevent a child from learning.  Good teachers can improve the rate at which a child learns.  Great teachers can create a deep love of learning and drastically increase the amount of knowledge that a child has, causing huge gains.  Even poor to mediocre teachers can smile and be nice to parents and students, teach children the curriculum and have that reflected in a gain in knowledge.  This is why parents will sometimes say that someone is a good teacher, when other teachers disagree.  Parents often can't move past the "smile and be nice" part to see what good teaching really is.  Young children WANT to learn.  They crave it.  They will often learn DESPITE their teachers.

There is however something a teacher can do to prevent a child from learning.  It is a surefire way to ruin a child's education.  To destroy their self confidence.  No good teacher would purposely do this.  But let's think for a moment what happens when we do.  I will use Grace as an example.

 - Grace walks into her classroom ready for another fun day at school.  She loves her teacher.  She hasn't made any friends yet.  For some reason that is hard for her.  But today she feels "off".  She hangs up her coat and backpack.  Carefully, making certain that she doesn't bump into her classmate who is eagerly ripping off his as he rushes to start his day.  Grace wants to be sure she doesn't touch him.  As he brushes up against her she cringes.  This causes her to need to start the process of taking off her coat again.  Suddenly she doesn't feel so ready for school after all.  Her teacher calls the children to the carpet.  Grace, now very much aware of her new, irrational fear of touching someone, is the last one over.  She stands cautiously behind her carpet square.  Her teacher asks her to sit down.  Instead of sitting, Grace backs up, making a twisted, worried face.  Her teacher, quite perplexed by this, tells her again to sit down.  Grace not wanting to get in trouble moves slowly to the carpet square and sits down at the very edge.  As soon as she is sitting the teacher tells the children it's time to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.  At this Grace panics.  The thought of going through this routine of standing and sitting again is too much to bear.  She refuses to stand.  Her teacher becomes upset.  She uses a tone that Grace hasn't heard directed at her before.  She now feels like a bad kid.  She thought her teacher liked her, but now she isn't sure what to think.  All she knows is that she CAN'T do what her teacher wants her to do and she doesn't know why.  She is no longer able to focus on anything that her teacher says.  Her only concern is what is coming up next and how to avoid it.  This pattern continues for the rest of the day.  After several weeks Grace is a mess.  Her mother drags her to school every day.  She cries and begs not to go.  Her teacher tried briefly giving her more time for transitions but has done nothing consistently.  She knows nothing of children with autism, sensory processing disorder or OCD.  She has no strategies for working with children with ADD or ADHD.  Instead, she is convinced that Grace is simply being stubborn.  Grace now refuses to move to new centers,  refuses to go to the carpet, refuses to stand to sing or for the Pledge of Allegiance.  She has no friends, and won't speak to any of the teachers.  Instead she stands in the corner of the classroom.  Her teachers have all but given up on her.

In four weeks this teacher managed to prevent Grace from learning.  She actually did it in one day.  I let it go on for four weeks.  This happens more often that I would like to admit.  Very few people have an understanding of special needs children unless they are either trained in special education, or they have a child with special needs.   But this lesson applies to almost all children.  There are so many reasons why children act the way they do.  Finding out why is essential to correcting the behavior.  Children behave a certain way for a reason - always.  Good teachers NEVER let anything prevent a child from learning.