A teacher calls an off-task student to attention, “Jack,
please listen to these directions.”
The student continues to carry on his conversation with a
classmate, so a little more directed the teacher says, “Jack, listen to the directions
and you can talk after we get started.”
With a nod, the student acknowledges the teacher and
verbally assents, “o.k.” but turns immediately back to his friend to finish.
“Jack, I’ve asked you three times already, you need to
listen so that you understand the task, if I have to speak to you again I will
move your seat.”
The student responds as asked. He stops talking, puts his
head on the desk and refuses to participate for the rest of class.
Can anyone other than teachers identify with this?
For goal-directed individuals with high achievement motivation
this is irrational behavior. “Better” students don’t do this. My AP-level
seniors articulate as much every day. These students have no problem describing
why they hate a given teacher (too much work, negative attitude, unfair
treatment). But, their attitude toward the teacher makes no difference in their
willingness to follow policy and work.
Two years ago I taught “Jack.” Jack was in my government
class with his girlfriend, “Jill.” They both came from an economically
disadvantaged background. At seventeen, they lived a lifestyle usually more
likely to be associated with twenty-somethings. They lived together with
extended family. They both worked to contribute income to the family. Jill
missed school often. Jack would usually provide the excuse that one of the
younger children stayed home sick and Jill’s mother had to work.
They rarely completed homework that couldn’t be finished in
class. I could imagine why. Both of them worked and their income was needed to
help with the family. At home, with smaller children, they were two of the
three adults and with shift-work, often responsible for the children in the
evening if not at work.
Neither of them enjoyed school and both of them saw it more as
a burden that made life difficult than an opportunity to make life better. They
were both very good people and I enjoyed getting to know them, but they lived
in a world different than one that I understood.
After class that day, I talked to Jack about his behavior. I
said something like this to him. “Jack, I don’t understand. When you get upset
with me, you refuse to work as if not doing your work hurts me somehow. You’re
only hurting yourself.”
His response helped me understand a little better. School
was the lowest priority in his life. At seventeen, he already had financial
obligations and commitments related to the basic priorities of life—food,
housing, health care. While not the head of a household, both of them assumed a
level of responsibility for the family unit. They weren’t married, but in their
socio-cultural context, they lived as a committed couple, looking to a future
together. He felt little control over the outcomes in his life, but here, in
the classroom was the one place he could exercise this autonomy and control
with little concern about the consequence.
We had a good relationship and I learned much from him.
I wish that reformers and policy-makers could learn more
from students like this.
I know there are flaws in Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs/Motives, but several examples are inarguable. If I need to go to the
bathroom, that need trumps all others. If I need to eat, that need trumps all
others. If I’m afraid, the need for security trumps all others.
If I feel alone, a search for companionship pervades my
life. If I feel like a failure, the search for success drives most of my
action. But if my belly is empty I don’t have time to worry about the
loneliness or failure, I just want food.
Maslow’s Theory does not apply rigidly to all cases, but
humans do prioritize the needs in their lives, striving to meet the most basic
usually before even considering the higher goals of life. Isolated stories of
overcoming the odds don’t prove the idea is wrong, it just proves that like
most rules, there are exceptions.
Educators must do everything within their power to overcome
the odds of poverty and life circumstances with the children in their care. We
must approach every child knowing that he or she has the potential to achieve.
But we must never allow the public to believe the lie that
education alone can level the playing field by creating the rising tide to lift
all boats.
