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Defeat or not Defeat - that is the question.


© Lise Hogan

Defeat.

What comes to mind when you hear this word? As a person who has known this word intimately - several come to my mind. It's a very familiar feeling for a lot of kids in special education. Some kind of failure - for most of them - is what landed them in special education in the first place.

Their inability to:
1. Stay on task
2. Comprehend school work on their appropriate age/grade level
3. Achieve/maintain normal relationships with peers
4. Keep up with their belongings
5. Get work that they have done turned in
6. Achieve/maintain normal/respectful relationships with adults
7. Accept criticism without coming apart
8. Problems with the law
9. Acting out in class - avoiding anything to do with school
10. Skipping school

ALL of these have at least one thing in common. That child has felt defeat. That alone will make it hard for that child to succeed. In order to succeed the child first needs to feel successful. If a child continues to fail in school - they begin to feel defeated. Then they give up trying. School is a waste anyway - I can't do anything.

Mom and Dad don't always recognize it. What do you do with the kid who won't try any more? Some do see it, but they are at a loss as to what to do about it.

What can we as educators do to help kids in this predicament? How can we help a kid that just wants to quit? I am not a doctor or an expert on this. I can share what has worked in my classroom with some of my students. Not naming any names, but the kids are real.

When a kid usually decides he needs to continually disrupt my classroom. I have a few of these - and each responds to a different kind of correction. One won't listen until you call his name. One won't listen until you yell his name. One just says "WHO CARES" when you tell him he's interrupting your classroom. What do all of these kids have in common? They have all experienced defeat. They have all at some time had trouble learning and failed - then were put in special education. The root of this is to help that child feel success in some way. When they feel successful in the classroom, sometimes it helps that. The first one I private conference

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

3.   Sep 26, 1999 5:47 PM
You missed the point. I was trying to show I'm not disliked by everyone. I guess not the best way to say "I'm not a bad teacher." This does not happen to all my students. I have no doubt in my min ...

-- posted by Batlise


2.   Sep 26, 1999 10:19 AM
Your definition of success appears to be based on whether kids like you later in life. The point was whether they learned anything from your class and you may never know. I think it's fairly common ...

-- posted by Heidiho


1.   Sep 25, 1999 9:56 AM
Children are our world, from their very conception... Before an infant takes his first breath his life is being built with love, hate, or indifference...
As our a child grows everything around him h ...

-- posted by SmileyD38





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