Judy on Divisiveness

4 thoughts on “Judy on Divisiveness”

1. chill

   July 12, 2015 at 5:55 pm

   Thanks for posting this up top again. There is much wisdom here! Enjoy Minneapolis. I will be missing everyone and hoping some of you may show up at NTPRS and or Agen!!

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2. Robert Harrell

   July 13, 2015 at 5:36 am

   Judy’s comments carry a lot of wisdom, and I appreciated reading what she had to say. Thanks for posting thing, Ben. Thanks for saying it, Judy.
   If we change the metaphor a little bit and see our colleagues as the horses, much of the same wisdom applies. As has been noted, many teachers are being traumatized by the system, often to the point of operating in survival mode or leaving the profession. When that is your reality, you do many things on autopilot because your conscious cognitive ability is taken up with trying to avoid painful encounters. We need to provide that calm place that attracts others rather than being another source of discomfort. (Alas, I know I have not always accomplished that.)
   But horses and people can recover. Several years ago I did a road show in Canada with Medieval Times. We had horses from throughout the US that were brought to Winnipeg for the start of the show. As the Master of Ceremonies, I had last pick of the horses. They gave me a horse that had been sent on the road show because no one wanted to ride him at his “home” castle. He tried to turn and run every time another horse entered the arena – and since I was on him for most of the show, this was a lot. Never once did I punish him for being afraid. Instead, every time he turned away, I simple circled him back forward to face his fear. Eventually he realized that nothing bad was going to happen to him while I was on him, calmed down, and became a really “solid” horse. Toward the end of the road show, one of the knights wanted to take Hector for himself because he was now having trouble with the horse he had chosen. (Judy can probably imagine what kind of rider he was.) Fortunately, the manager on the tour said absolutely not because he recognized the change in Hector from the start of the tour and knew that this knight would undo it.
   I think the same thing applies with both teachers and students. If we can find ways to encourage them without punishing them for being tentative or “acting out” because of having been aggressed, we can make some serious progress. It has taken a long time, but when I have teachers of history, math, and other subjects tell me that the German students write notes to each other in German, write on their boards in German, can accomplish routine tasks in German – and the students of other languages cannot -, a certain reputation begins to build. I once had the following exchange with one of our history teachers:
   – “Let me see if I’ve got this right: No desks, no homework, no worksheets, no conjugation charts, but your students speak German in my history class while the other language students don’t.”
   – “And?”
   – “Works for me!”

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3. Laurie

   July 13, 2015 at 8:19 am

   Amen Robert Amen.
   with love,
   Laurie

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4. Don Read

   July 13, 2015 at 12:05 pm

   Robert and Judy – after hearing your insights and wisdom, I wish I had spent more time around horses!

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