Blog 3: Troublemakers

While reading " Marcus On Being Good!" by Carla Shalaby, I noticed a few visible and invisible rules and codes that are used within Marcus' classroom. A visible class rule that I picked up on is that he class starts the day in a reading circle and their teacher usually gives them instructions on what to look out for during the reading. The class then participates in writing activities and if anyone has questions or concerns, they are to inform the teacher and the teacher will help them. An invisible rule amongst the entire class is whenever Marcus says/does something, the rest of the entire class seem to have the common notion to ignore him and continue with on with their work. The idea behind this is to probably not give into Marcus' antics and to not encourage him to continue with his behavior however, by the whole class ignoring him I can't help but realize that these actions probably just makes Marcus feel isolated and left out.


Something similar that I can compare between Marcus' story and my own youth space is that whenever I have a student with a disability the other students will often ignore them and not pay them any attention. The majority of the class would often treat the student that has the disability as being "different" or "weird" and often wouldn't associate themselves with that specific student. If the student who had the disability misbehaves or disrupts the class activity, the class will often glare at the student and/or swear at them . When I had first started the job I'm currently in and saw this happening I instantly had the idea to inform all the students about disabilities and had them all apologize to the student. It's astonishing how little our youth know about disabilities and as youth workers it's very important that we educate them on it. Without educating youth they will call a child with disabilities "weird", "annoying", and "different" without actually getting to know them and really understanding why these students do what they do and act the way that they do. After having a discussion with the class, some of the students chose to no longer speak to the student with the disability, under the statement that if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all (that is something that I will continue to work on with them). I'm more pleased to say however, that most students started to defend the student with a disability in front of their peers, after school AND during the school day! The student who had a disability finally felt welcomed in their school environment and was very happy to have made new friends who understood them!

Usually when a child is causing trouble, my staff and I usually give 3 strikes for them to start behaving. I'm typically a one-on-one type of person so I like to pull the "trouble making" student aside and talk with them to see what's going on and where their head is at. During that one on one I'll remind the youth of what the expectations we have for them are in regards to the program and help discuss with them a plan to stop the misbehaving. Sometimes students will have a lot on their minds and will share with me things that they are currently going through. One thing that I've learned from a very young age is that when you tell a child that they're "bad" and other negative adjectives, that child will take those words personally (even if they say that they don't) and act on those negative words or stereotypes associated with them, believing that since their "bad" them they should behave in a "bad" way. I always try to reassure EVERY youth that I encounter as much as I can that they are not a "bad" or "troublesome" child but their behavior is not acceptable and that together we will find ways to demonstrate more positive behavior in class!

Comments

  1. Victoria RestlerSeptember 24, 2020 at 8:48 AM

    Thank you for your post Tamera. I appreciate your reflections on the readings and the links you make to your current youth spaces. It's interesting in your last paragraph how you talk about three strikes, and then also connecting with youth 1-to-1 and being sure not to label them as bad or wrong. I think about how "strike" can look like a punishment and also 1-to-1 with a trusted adult can be a reward. I wonder how the youth internalize these approaches? I appreciate how you have been able to work within the system of three strikes, but find another way of connecting.

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  2. Sara Hutchings-SchwartzSeptember 24, 2020 at 1:25 PM

    Your blog really hits home Tamera, especially how we need to make spaces for conversations with students about what stigma is and how not addressing it can lead to more behaviors that enforce negative stereotypes. Seeing that need you opened up and continue with the conversation to lead students to understanding instead of judgement. We don't introduce the opportunity or vocabulary to address sigma to students until far too late in the game.

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  3. Jenneya BennettSeptember 24, 2020 at 5:49 PM

    I appreciate that you address issues of marginalization head on. In my work, many educators that I speak to about confrontation are completely uncomfortable with doing it if the topic is not familiar to them (i.e. race, ability status etc.). I think that in these spaces it's always important to have folks like yourself who are not afraid to ask questions and raise concerns!

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