Sharon shares a great analogy made by her principal:
Hi, Ben…
[My principal] and I have been dealing with a particular student who has had some major attitude issues since August. The boy’s mother has been to the principal’s office where we all met in conference, and I have continued to communicate with her via email many times since then as issues occurred. However, last Friday, I ended up sending Mr. Attitude with Anger Issues to the office. I was thinking he was so angry, he really needed someone to talk to. However, when he got to the office, he didn’t know why he was there… According to the principal who has been dealing with this student since middle school, he said this was nothing new. I asked the principal if he wanted me to contact the mother or if he would. I was grateful when he was he would telephone her.
Today, my principal reported their conversation to me. Nothing new for the principal, mother defends son. So he ended up telling mother, the bottom line is the fact that this Spanish class is a participatory class; it’s like a P.E.; either you get out and play or you flunk!
His analogy totally amazed me, and I thought, “He HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!” I had never thought of it that way, but he, as a former coach, got right down to it. You, Ben, often use the term, “play the game,” and I’ve begun to use the same language with my students, but I had not equated it to P.E. but now we’ve got it! — you dress out and play the game or you flunk the course!