Your story is very interesting and sad as many educational stories. Let me
draw your attention to something that I've learned from it.
There were two types of teaching:
1) Teaching academic stuff, "some of the basics of the gr.1 curriculum",
which seemed to be indifferent to needs and problems that child had been
engaged and struggled. The power of this teaching is that you can teach a
student whatever you (or somebody else -- more powerful, which more often a
case) want. The weakness of this type of teaching, unless what is taught
is left indifferent to the child, is that even if the learning (aka
transmission of knowledge) successful, it is very shallow (like training
animals in a circle). In short, this type of teaching often (but still not
always because student can make his or her own efforts) generate "extrinsic
learning" -- student does what is required but only in a contrive settings.
2) Teaching relaxation techniques that can (and apparently did) give the
child control over important for him circumstances. The power of this type
of teaching is in generating deep and empowering learning in a student.
The "weakness" of this type of teaching is that nobody can unilaterally
define the content of this type of teaching. This type of teaching leads
to so called "intrinsic" or "authentic learning."
Each type of teaching promotes its own social relations. The first type
dynamically promotes compliance, cooperation (in a sense of bargaining),
coercion, cheating, surveillance, mistrust, and rebellion. The second type
dynamically promotes collaboration, trust, mutuality, respect, and help.
I think that you, Diane, were fired mainly because your teaching approach
Number 2 undermined institutional relations in the school heavily based on
Number 1 type of teaching and social relations promoted by it.
What do you think?
Eugene
At 11:31 AM 10/11/97 -0700, you wrote:
>I have a story. :-)
>
>I was working with a seven-yr old boy who had been diagnosed with ADDH
>(attetnion deficit disorder and hyperactivity/hypertension),
>and
>he was having a lot of trouble participating in his gr.1 class.
>
>Three times a week, he and I would
>spend about four hours in an empty classroom, working through some of
>the basics of the gr.1 curriculum.
>
>Very early on I realized there were several factors at play, not the last
>of which is the problem with the gr.1 curriculum (can u say WORKSHEETS?)
>-ah, learning. Ah, education.
>
>anyhow, his mother was dosing out his ritalin erratically, like, if they
>were taking a long car drive, she would dose the kid up for the ride...
>
>we talked a lot about the ritalin, this boy and I, and I asked him if he
>liked it, liked the medication.
>He said, "You know, sometimes I can feel my eyes just jiggling in my head,
>they're just jiggling in my head, and the ritalin helps stop that..."
>
>so I said something about feeling nervous, and he nodded enthusiastically,
>nervous, very nervous...
>
>So I shucked the worksheets to the side (woo-hoo!) and taught him a few
Tai Chi
>exercises.
>One is called
>"Drawing the bow" - but of course the key is breathing, relaxation, and
>slow movements,
>so we practiced that, breathing deeply until your stomach is full and you can
>feel your lower back fill up with air, and then letting it go, slow slow,
>like a balloon with a tiny hole...etc...
>and then I showed him the movements for Drawing the Bow, which are,
>basically, like drawing the the arrow back on a bow and aiming it into the
>air, slowly,
>
>well.
>He copied my movements and we stood in front of each other, and I realized
>he wasn't looking at my body, he was looking into my eyes. I looked into his
>eyes, and I could SEE something shift, or change, but what? I could never
say.
>
>But he stood there, ADDH and all, jiggly eyes and nervousness, and he
>slowly slowly drew the arrow back in his bow, leaning on his stance, slowly
>tilting and holding the pose,
>
>and he looked at me again, as he stood there in the pose, stillness - I
>remember the
>stillness and the poise, and then, as though he"knew" what he had just
>done, he grinned and his eyes opened wide and he just beamed at me. Then he
>said, "What's another one? What's another one?" and we learned a few
>more...
>
>the point of the story is that sometimes to "SEE" the change, you have to
>be tuned
>in to the person in a way which exceeds gesture or measurement,
>
>but, spatially, we were there, in that zone, and it was an instant of
something
>quite intimate, in the eyes... and it didn't alter his condition,
>or make him better at filling out worksheets,
> of course, but rather gave him a tool for his own sanity.
>
>I also taught him isometric exercises, but that's a whole other story. :-)
>interesting footnote to my little story - when the school language specialist
>read my (weekly)reports, she had me pulled out of the school for (a)
>subverting the
>
>policies concerning learning interventions; and for (b) ignoring the
>required emphasis on developing competence in school curriculum.
>
>i.e., I was fired for what I did.
>just goes to show eh?
>
>
>diane
>
>"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right"
> (Ani Difranco)
>*********************************************
>
> diane celia hodges
> faculty of graduate studies
> centre for the study of curriculum and instruction
> university of british columbia,
> vancouver, british columbia, canada V6T 1Z4
>
>(604) 253-4807
> dchodges who-is-at interchange.ubc.ca
>
>
>
-----------------------------------------------
Eugene Matusov
Willard Hall Educational Bldg., Room 206G
Department of Educational Studies
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716-2920
Phone: (302) 831-1266
Fax: (302) 831-4445
e-mail: ematusov who-is-at udel.edu
http://www.ematusov.com
------------------------------------------------