Defeat or not Defeat - that is the question.
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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