Many years ago I remember this kid standing up in front of his classmates relaying some information to them regarding some rules for a contest on which they were embarking. He was informing them about the dimension allowance of one of the decorations. As soon as he confidently told the students of the permitted measurements, the kid next to him whispered in his ear that the measurements were actually changed to make them larger. The poor kid didn't know what to do and became flustered. What really did him in was that another kid on the other side of him confirmed this, along with his teacher/advisor. It was too much for the kid to announce the change, and he stuttered about and flaggled around, his ears got hot and his face turned red and finally he blurted out in the microphone, "Well, 36 inches is what's written down so it's 36 inches!"
Four legs good, two legs bad!
The kid was considered "gifted" by Johns Hopkins University. Yikes. As long as all he faced was the same pitch, he was "smart". But as soon as the curve ball came, as soon as anything out of the ordinary appeared, he freaked out like an autistic savante would walking into a library with one stinking book out of place. I'm surprised he didn't drop to the floor and convulse. I thought I would certainly have to storm the stage and make sure he didn't swallow his tongue.
I've got a couple of questions I use to shock these "gifted" kids out of this anesthetized state. Here's one you can try sometime but make sure a math teacher isn't within ear shot: Is it farther to Chicago, or by bus? This just drives them absolutely bananas. If it ain't gonna show up on the SAT, it is utterly alien to them.
Is it just me, or is the lack of flexibility in kids like this just plain disturbing? Can we foster something else, please?
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I couldn't agree with you more Mr. Powell. Never in my entire career of teaching, have I met a student with significant roadblocks to learning that couldn't pinpoint a major event in their lives that started all of their problems. Never. All of these "at risk" students have either been through abuse, divorce, a family member who is chemically dependent, etc. It is very sad because I can see parents doing this to their kids and I wish I could grab them by the arms and explain what the guaranteed result is. "Do you realize that you are actively making your child a dropout?" It is scary that you have to go through so much training to be a foster parent, drive a car, operate a backhoe, or spray weeds, but any knucklehead can have a kid. I have sometimes felt that school should start when children are still unborn and be directed at the parents to equip them with the tools and knowledge they need to parent effectively. This is extremely impractical, I know, but it would help to fix the root of the problem instead of trying to put a Band-Aid on it years later when it is a gaping wound. This is not to say that we as educators can't or shouldn't work to make a difference. The fact of the situation is that we get who we get and we have no control over that. We have to focus on what we can do and schools like the one you work in do make a difference for these kids. The bottom line is that kids who go through these traumatic experiences will most often not flourish in school environment as it was created for kids in the early 1900s. We need to make topics compelling to students and allow them to feel that they are in the driver’s seat. When we do that and equip them with the tools they need to be successful, it is more authentic and more powerful.
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