Chapter 2 - Post 2

While reading from Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) this week, one paragraph caused me to stop dead in my tracks:

                “If you are one of those unfortunate students whose learning needs do not match what the school can provide, school after school, teacher after teacher, year after year, failure after failure, you learn one thing… that you do not belong in school, that you are stupid, useless, worthless, a waste of time for everyone.  So you find ways to avoid being there, or ways to avoid facing yet another failure, or ways to make everyone think you know when you do not.  Then perhaps you will find ways to make other people pay for making you feel bad, ways to settle the score a little, ways to make others wish they were not there, either” (p. 22).

This paragraph describes my current students to a “T”.  For those of you who might not already be aware, I currently work in an alternative education setting for students in grades 7-12.  Many people express one of two sentiments upon hearing about what I do and who I work with: confusion or horror.  However, I don’t believe that either sentiment is warranted.  The simplest explanation I can give about where I work and the students I work with is that I work with students who have not been successful in the traditional classroom environment.  Most likely, their learning needs have not met what the school can provide, and so they have learned that they are failures and a waste of time.  And this belief has led them to act out in the ways described in the last sentence of the paragraph above.  They are not bad kids; they are simply misunderstood.  As a counselor someday, I aspire to be part of the solution when it comes to finding more ways to accommodate these students.  With the advent of things like Response to Intervention (RTI) and the promise of new technology and groundbreaking ideas such as the Open Campus initiative which has conjoined my district with two others, I have hope that someday we may not see as many students underserved in our schools.

Considering my future aspirations in this area, Dollarhide and Saginak’s discussion of developmentally appropriate education was also stimulating to me.  Eggen and Kauchak  (as cited in Dollarhide & Saginak, 2012, p. 24), characterize developmentally appropriate methodology as “utilizing discovery, group projects, independent thinking, and reflection; motivation is intrinsic and based on curiosity; classroom organization is designed for individualized instruction and small-group interaction; and the educator’s role is perceived as that of director and facilitator.”  I must admit, this type of instruction sounds ideal for both me and my current students, however, I am not sure how it is possible to run a classroom in this way while schools are still held to state and federal benchmarks and students are required to take standardized tests to demonstrate their achievement level.  It seems that the only schools which might be allowed to operate using developmentally appropriate methodology are private and charter schools, but perhaps I am mistaken. 

Dollarhide and Saginak note that the central premise of the developmentally appropriate system is respect.  I found the timing of reading this statement quite ironic, as just today I spoke with my own students and fellow staff members about what it looks like to establish a culture of respect in our school.  Dollarhide and Saginak ask, “Is it possible to hope that an entire institution can view students with respect?” (2012, p. 25).  I think that it is possible (especially now, since I work in an EXTREMELY small school)!  Just this summer while at the ASCA conference in Philadelphia, I heard about how a group of students transformed their entire school district in Texas.  How did they do it?  When asked by their counselors what they would most like to change in their school, the students decided to address the topic of disrespect.  They came up with an acronym – INOK – for Disrespect: It’s Not Okay, and it caught on like wildfire.  Perhaps the greatest thing that I walked away from that session with was the lesson that our most valuable, underutilized resource as counselors is our students.  Through them, large-scale change is possible.  And if we want to foster the use of their passion and ingenuity to create positive change in our world, we must start with respect.

Reference

Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs: K-12 delivery systems in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.