Children Do Well If They Can!
Governor Mifflin Middle School believes that students do well if they can. When students are not successful, it is most often due to undeveloped or underdeveloped skills, also known as lagging skills. Most times students exhibit a concerning or challenging behavior, it is associated to a lagging skill.
“Every day, and with every child, we need to keep in mind that behaviors are just the protruding tip of the proverbial iceberg."
-Alfie Kohn
While it may not immediately sound like an earth-shattering statement to say that students do well if they can, it does force one to challenge the more commonly held belief that students do well if they want to. This philosophy is the culmination of the work of behavioral scientist and founder of Lives in the Balance, Dr. Ross Greene. Lives in the Balance is a non-profit organization whose goal is to "foster collaboration and empathy, transform lives, and inspire change for all children (especially the most vulnerable), to heighten awareness of the detrimental and counterproductive effects of punitive interventions, and to address the systemic issues that impede our progress." While their work is more directly targeted for students with behavioral concerns, it certainly applies to academic concerns as well.
The difference between the philosophies, "kids do well if they can" and "kids do well if they want to" may not sound incredibly dissimilar in philosophy; however, the implications of the former vs the latter have serious implications in the responses to children who struggle with behavior or academics. If we assume that children are "choosing" not to do well, we remove most of the responsibility from ourselves, other than addressing their desire to do well. However, as parents and educators, if we work to understand the lagging skills, or unsolved problems, that interfere with a child's success, we can then help them build the necessary skills they are missing.
The problem is, lagging skills often present as a lack of desire or motivation to do well, leaving the impression that the student is making a choice to not do well. This is not to say that children do not exhibit avoidance behaviors. It does, however, change the way we should respond to avoidance behaviors. For example, if an avoidance behavior is recognized, instead of acting to "make the child want to," we should address the reason for the avoidance behavior, as it is likely that the child is lacking a necessary skill or habit of mind to complete the task successfully. A child who regularly avoids doing math homework might be missing a key concept to complete the assignment without frustration. Or a child who consistently forgets to brush their teeth might lack organizational skills or resiliency factors like perseverance or the ability to manage impulsivity. As seen below, Dr. Greene discusses the collaborative problem solving process to help get past difficult obstacles with children, to ultimately identify and address the lagging skill that is preventing the child from being successful.
