Working with Troubled children and Youth- Pathways to Potential

If you or your organization or school is interested in workshops that I am able to provide

feel free to reach out to me.  Mcknightmichael816@gmail.com

Resiliency.... Children and Youth

The central finding of resiliency research is that young people living with in

 “risky systems” can overcome the odds if they are nurtured with-in another

micro system that provides a safe environment and at the very minimum

one adult who is

“ TENACIOUSLY AND CONSISTENTLY CARING”…

 

 

 

Educators and Teachers- it starts here!!

The student is infinitely more important

 than the subject matter. 

~ Nel Noddings 

John Steinbeck on Teaching!

I have come to believe that a great teacher 
is a great artist and that there are as few 
as there are any other great artists. 
Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts 
since the medium is the human mind and spirit. 
~ John Steinbeck

Freire---

How can I be an educator

 if I do not develop in myself

 a caring and loving attitude 

toward the student, 

which is indispensable 

on the part of one who is committed

 to teaching and to the education process itself.

 ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

Dignity and Respect from Adults to Children...

Students deserve our care and concern

 on the grounds of principle,

 not personality. 

~ Marshall Gregory, "Pedagogy and the Three Loves"

Connection-Relationship-Relevance

The fact that people can forget these simple truths

 when intellectualizing about children

 shows how far modern doctrines have taken us. 

They make it easy to think of children

 as lumps of putty to be shaped

 instead of partners in a human relationship. 

~ Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate (p. 399)

Sometimes a simple, almost insignificant gesture

 on the part of a teacher 

can have a profound formative effect 

on the life of a student. 

~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

Relationship and Connections..

I am dealing with people and not with things. 

And, because I am dealing with people,

 I cannot refuse my wholehearted and loving attention,

 even in personal matters,

 where I see that a student

 is in need of such attention. 

~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

Aliveness!!!

The teacher must pounce upon the most listless child, and wake him up.

The habit of prompt and ready response must be kept up.

Recapitulations, illustrations, examples, novelty of order, and ruptures of routine,-

-all these are means for keeping the attention alive and contributing a little interest to a dull subject.

Above all, the teacher must himself be alive and ready,

and must use the contagion of his own example

~ William James,Talks to Teachers

Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness.
 ~ Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

Engagement- William James

Begin with the line of [a student’s] native interests,

 and offer him objects that have some immediate connection with these. . . . 

Schools in which these methods preponderate

 are schools where discipline is easy, 

and where the voice of the master claiming order 

and attention in threatening tones need never be heard. 

~ William James, Talks to Teachers

Actions / Words

Choose as a guide

 one who you will admire more

 when you see him act 

than when you hear him speak.

 ~ Seneca

Being with Children and Youth

Children need models rather than critics. ~ Joseph Joubert

 

“All reality is relationship,

and all relationships are enlarged

and enriched in proportion to the sensitivity

 with which they are perceived and lived.”

— Ashley Montagu

Connection

There are sacred moments in life when we experience in rational and very direct ways that separation, the boundary between ourselves and other people and between ourselves and Nature, is illusion. Oneness is reality. - Charlene Spretnak

Connections....

The hallmarks of the transforming therapeutic

interaction are safety, predictability, and nurturance.

The most “therapeutic” interactions often

come from people who have no training (or interest)

in psychological or psychiatric labels, theories,

treatments, and the adult expectations of the

child that go with these. In interacting with the

child, respect, humor, and flexibility can allow

the child to be valued as what they are.”

 (Perry, 2002, p. 11)

Be.... a sign post...

Many youth are just waiting for someone “real”

to show up

—someone they can emulate.

--Mark Krueger, PhD

Schools are an ecosystem, not an assembly line.

We Teach in Living systems!!!

It is People...Not Programs......Teachers can change Lives..

“Only people change people;

 and the qualities required for this

are the same as they have always been –

we influence children if they like

 and respect us enough to want to be like us”

(cyc-net.org, 56-1, June 2002).

What is the purpose of School?

Ron Miller draws distinctions between three general approaches.
A transmission approach assumes that the primary purpose of education
 is to induct young people into the established values, beliefs, and accepted knowledge of the existing society.
The transaction approach is more sensitive to the social context of learning. There is more room for individual differences, more respect for diverse understandings, and a concern that only a democratic community encourages dialogue and experimentation.
The transformational approach is more radical and proposes that to educate the human being is not merely to make him a knowledgeable, productive member of society (transmission), or an active, engaged citizen (transaction), but also to encourage each person to discover a deeper meaning for his or her life.

Seeing.....

Discipline is not Punishment..know the difference!!

Models...

Strength based....thoughts...

Positive youth development  focuses on the broader developmental needs of young people in contrast to deficit-based models which simply focus on problems.

This quote has helped remind me of what it is I am doing:

“Helping, fixing, and serving

represent three different ways of seeing life.

When you help, you see life as weak.

 When you fix, you see life as broken.

When you serve, you see life as whole.

Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego,

and service the work of the soul.”

― Rachel Naomi Remen

What have children taught you?

Teachers......

Reclaiming Youth

Education must be personal...

“Never let the demands

 of your job or the curriculum

cause you to forget

that each one of your students

 is a feeling-thinking human being.

 For education to be effective

 it must be personal."

 --George Isaac Brown

 

 

A "BE" choice for Teachers...

Each time I walk into a classroom,

 I can choose the place within myself

 from which my teaching will come,

 just as I can choose the place

within my students toward which

my teaching will be aimed.

~Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

 

 

Montessori on Teachers..

Teachers..

 "....you yourselves

 must be filled

with wonder

and when you have

acquired that,

 you are prepared."

- Montessori, Her Life and Work p. 309

 

 

Teaching is personal...

“Never let the demands

 of your job or the curriculum

cause you to forget

that each one of your students

 is a feeling-thinking human being.

 For education to be effective

 it must be personal."

 --George Isaac Brown

 

 

The teacher receives
 and accepts the student's feelings 
toward the subject matter; 
she looks at it and listens to it
 through his eyes and ears. 
How else can she interpret the subject matter 
for him? 
~ Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminist Approach to Ethics and Moral Education

Nel Noddings-Always remember this!!!

The student is infinitely more important than the subject matter. 
~ Nel Noddings

When a teacher 
asks a question in class 
and a student responds, 
she receives not just the "response"
 but the student.
 What he says matters, 
whether it is right or wrong, 
and she probes gently for clarification, 
interpretation, contribution. 
She is not seeking the answer 
but the involvement of the cared-for. 
~ Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminist Approach to Ethics and Moral Education

Palmer..

“As I teach,
 I project the condition of my soul 
onto my students, 
my subject, 
and our way of being together.” 
-Parker Palmer

“Good teaching 
cannot be reduced to technique; 
good teaching comes from the identity
 and integrity of the teacher.” 

-Parker Palmer

Resources you may want to check out...feel free to add!!!

Teaching...

Who dares to teach
must never cease to learn.
– John Cotton Dana

Purpose .....

It is not sufficient,
 and it may actually
 undermine our democracy,
 to concentrate on producing people
 who do well on standardized tests
and who define success
 as getting a well-paid job.
– Nel Noddings,
What Does It Mean to Educate the Whole Child?

Standardization.....

STANDARDIZATION…

States and Provinces and curricula
 around the world track students by age.
This practice is so common
that we do not think of it as tracking.
With few exceptions,
a six year old must go into first grade
even if that six year old is not ready
or was ready for the grade one year earlier.
– Zalman Usiskin

Learning...

The man who doesn't read good books
has no advantage over the man
 who can't read them.
– Mark Twain

Troubled Kids...Pain Based Behavior... consider knowing this..

“There are wounds that never

 show on the body

 that are deeper and more hurtful

than anything that bleeds.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton

Adolecents... what a cool stage!!!

But I promise,

underneath that bravado of the seventh grader

or swagger of the tenth grader

 you will find that small first grader who wonders,

“Will my teacher like me?”

And when that child – that teen –

 knows that you believe he or she matters,

then that student will do most anything for you.

(from Kylene Beers in an open letter to America’s teachers)

Teaching Troubled Children and Youth

He’s Violent, you say.

  Perhaps.

But imagine what it takes

 for a child to strike an adult-

his only source of survival.

 Imagine the depth of terror

 behind this bravado-

Imagine  the depth of hurt. 

--(L. Tobin)

Education vs Schooling...

“Education is not the piling on of learning,

 information, data, facts, skills, or abilities—

that's training or instruction—

but is rather a making visible what is hidden as a seed...

--Thomas Moore