Jeff is really a kind of lightning rod in our village. He has now been hit again. The image is one of a boxer taking another roundhouse to the head. No mistake about it – Jeff’s experiences these past few months are very emblematic of what many of us deal with, if perhaps to a lesser amount. Here’s the latest:
Dear All,
Here is another situation that I am dealing with. This young girl is angry because she often blurts out in class and is attention seeking. I lowered her jGR and she was upset with that. So upset that she wanted to drop the class. Suggestions on how to talk to her. This is my second year class. You guys read another email from another parent in that class. The 4% are trying to work together against me. She thinks because she hears a phrase once that she is acquiring. She doesn’t trust how things are going. She wants to analyze Latin and “learn more.” Can you give me suggestions on how to help her? I gave her a job, but she is so angry that she has stopped doing her job. It is quite frustrating. There are about 5-6 of these ones. They are really smart and awesome, but they think that memorizing facts and being able to play certamen in JCL is knowledge. Eheu!
Thanks in advance for the advice. Here is the email from the parent.
…Mr. Brickler, I had a long talk with L. about class and really tried to encourage her to stick with Latin but she says she’s just not happy and feels she is being asked to help kids who don’t care and her own learning is being discouraged as a result of the class size and make up? Do you have any suggestions? I really hate to see her drop out after having put so much into the class and her interest in the subject to be lost. Maybe you can talk to her. She did say she learned a lot more last year and that style was more effective (not sure what that means). She says she’s not discouraging other students and others feel the same way about the class? Are there different levels? Could she test up? She said its the same either way and that wouldn’t help? I guess she will have to just make a decision one way or the other. Thanks for your help….
My (Ben’s) response, followed by John’s:
This is where you need the immediate support of administration and counseling to allow her to drop – she needs to just drop the class. Or should I say that she must be drop kicked out of the class. This child is way out of line. The school must understand the game this child is playing. If they don’t and cave to the parents, then you need to find another school.
Here is the thing in a nutshell. She is in the minority. She seems to be working hard to get a little army going. Then she wouldn’t have to change. This is all about her, not you. You are asking her to become human. How many times have we been through this with one of our group members here in the past few years?
This is the work we have to do, and it is much bigger and challenging than just teaching a language. Whether we like it or not, in order to in fact teach the language, as it turns out, we now must require children who want memorized/rote/book driven instruction to change to become more human!
And yet that is almost impossible! These kids have figured out how to become experts in gaming the system since 6th grade via memorization and are now in full robotic response to whatever the teacher may want to teach, and are only happy as long as the instruction involves clear concrete sequential instruction with no room for anything that happens in any kind of hippy driven grey zone, which is precisely where language happens.
Jeff wants to make his teaching more human because he gets it that learning a language is a human event, involving a zone of proximal development (Vygotsky) and reciprocal and participatory back and forth human exchange/negotiation of meaning, but when one has become a robot, one cannot respond (Krashen), and Jeff then has to deal with this kind of thing. Hang him high for wanting to change the way he exercises his craft!
This is bullshit. Jeff, you can’t keep taking hits like this. You yourself might get knocked out when it is the kid who needs to be allowed to exit an arena no parent should have ever allowed her to enter in the first place.
Time out! This child and the support expressed on her behalf by a weak parent is truly a threat. Everybody in this group needs a plan of action with specific steps, but I can’t remember where we are on that. Did we create one back in round 2 of this deal?
I might add that this kind of kid is not at fault. When schools begin with the data game in primary school, with little focus on developing social skills and higher order thinking in the public venues that classrooms are, they begin playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette. They are creating memorizers, not people. It’s a big deal. The topic is too huge for words, really. Suffice to ask one question. Would Jeff be having to deal with this if the child had not been turned into a little memorizer some time around 6th grade by the system?
Ben
John adds:
Ben really beat me to it, but I wanted to reiterate that this student (and her parents) has NO RIGHT to tell you what is and isn’t effective teaching. You have no obligation to have a discussion with this CHILD as if among colleagues, or justify yourself to this CHILD. I had a student like this last year, and in retrospect I cannot believe how I allowed him to speak to me so disrespectfully, because he was “gifted” but lazy, and I was requiring him to show up in a human way, and he didn’t like that, so he tried to come at me by criticizing my teaching.
One on one with this student, you just stop the conversation and say: “I understand your concerns, but you are not the expert here, and you clearly do not understand what I am doing here as a teacher, but your learning is my #1 priority, and everything I do in my class is to help you learn Latin. I have spent years learning how to be a teacher. If you are interested in doing additional work that is the kind you are comfortable with, I would be happy to assign you some, but keep in mind that I will grade you on this, and you will still be responsible for everything we cover in class (stealing Ben’s genius move here).”
Once they realize that it will mean more work for them, and that their grade will be even more on the line, this may quiet them down.
John