Day 7

The conclusion of the classes. Spending a Saturday stuck in a lecture was never ideal, but, as with most things in life, you have to make peace with what you can't control. 

Some very thought-provoking ideas were shared in today's session. The most notable and by far my favorite idea was that of the Willing and Able decision-making framework. By factoring in these two options, a variety of situations can be easily solved and dealt with quickly. We used a four-block diagram to label the decision-making process. A learner could be willing or not and able or not. By combining these two options in different manners, an option about the desired outcome of the interaction would be presented. 

To me, the biggest headscratcher was the idea of an Able and Unwilling learner. The outcomes were either to encourage or to enforce consequences. Now, we all know that consequences come in all forms and sizes, and we as educators try our best to administer them sparsely. So to hear an example being used of a natural consequence was an eye-opener. The example was a child with a dirty room and dirty laundry who will quickly learn the consequences when he has to get a clean shirt for a date. This child is able to clean his room, but certainly not willing. My question at this time was, can we as educators enforce such natural consequences. I wasn't given the answer I was looking for but didn't want to take up more time.

So, here's my attempt to illustrate it better. 

Say a student is able to complete his/her assignment, but not willing to do so. Timeline extensions are given and the student fails to comply. A failing grade is not held as a consequence, but a direct result of not completing the assignment. The student is given countless reminders daily and yet no action is taken by him/her. Positive reinforcement is supplied in bulk, yet, no action is taken. The teacher in this regard has done, by all means, a great job in trying to create a willing student. The student, however never crossed that barrier into the willing zone, but remained very able. Is this student allowed to suffer the natural consequences of a failing grade? 

Could there be a deeper underlying reason why the student remained resilient in their unwillingness to complete the assignment? Yes, there could have been. Was it up to the teacher to find the reason for this unwillingness? Surely within reason. How deep must the rabbit hole go before a teacher can rest easily knowing that they have tried their best and the students should learn from the consequences of their actions. 

This leads me to the last question that I never asked. When does a child become an adult? 

If we protect the learners from themselves and the consequences of their actions throughout their entire academic career, what will happen the moment they leave school? Who's going to hold their hand when they're late for college assignments? For how long is their future employer going to tolerate their lack of effort? They will learn the consequences of these actions fairly easily and with lots of tears. Would it not be better for them to learn these hard consequences in a place of safety where failure is an option. 

After all, even though we want to change the world to a place of peace through education, it still very much is a dog-eat-dog world out there. 

Daily Peace Action:

Try my best to be in every one of my student's corners. You never know what's going on at home and a neutral ear and kind word might just be the thing they need most.