June 14, 2018
Today was another magnificent day of learning, and I end it with another question: What is the origin of behavioural challenges? (Interestingly enough this CFE is making me do a lot of thinking… As I find new perspectives, I am given new questions as opposed to solving previous ones.”
I spent my day with two grade 1 classes with two very different atmospheres to them. The first was very structured and routines where well in place (I did not think this at first, being a first timer in the classroom); the second was a bit more fluid due to a handful of challenging students.
What struck me the most in the first class is how much flexibility with boundaries can assist and promote a sense of responsibility. This sentiment is not unlike my previous reflection, but in this Grade 1 situation, it was much more pronounced. This responsibility soon turned into ownership, where their owl and shark drawing lesson transformed into a faucet for creativity and incorporating personal interests. We had multiple Mario-Owls and Mario-Sharks. Some of the owls were even drawn with mucus dripping from their nose, which were termed “infectious owls”. They were not told to adapt their designs in this way… nor were they given direction to cut out their owls. It seemed like it was a fitting path to permit, because the level of investment from the students only increased once they incorporated their desires.
The second class had one student in particular that caught my attention. I shall call him Charlie. Charlie was consistently distracted, moving around, drawing on objects, getting into other students’ faces, and being a general distraction. I eventually met his younger almost-3-year-old brother and his mother. It seemed like he had a “regular” (chaotic) lifestyle with 3 male siblings and a mother that cares very much for him. From whence comes his behavioural challenges? It does not seem like there is a genetic disposition from my inferences from his baby brother and mother… His brother was astutely engaged in trying to successfully attach a plastic linking chain to a toy trolley, such that he could pull it along with the chain; the child had a highly tinkering-mindset, if I could say such a thing.
Nature versus nurture… It is the age old question of how we as human beings ultimately find our realization in maturity. I have never been one for either or. I personally choose a third option, which is that nature greatly influences, but there is fulfillment of needs that children need met in order for them to function positively, which incorporates an element of nurture. I tried identifying what exactly it was that Charlie needed… It seemed like he needed a challenge with his work; he found the relatively simple activity of hunting for triangular shapes out in the play ground too mediocre for him. Honestly, I am starting to think that there is more of a story, and he is having some sort of need that is not being met, whether it is attention, trauma, challenge, or motivation, I do not know. He was quite engaged when we were doing a lesson on science about animals and different types of ears. The inner machinations of a child’s mind still remains a mystery to me. Perhaps, I should try thinking like a child more…
P.S. I am currently conducting a few experiments through my interactions with my homestay’s son, who is in grade 3. I tell puns, sometimes laughing at them, sometimes explaining them, and sometimes with no reaction at all. It seems that he does not get them… Maybe he just does not find them humorous? I do not know. I am aware that children are very literal, but it seems like, based on my personal findings, Gr. 5 is when we should start puns with children… not primary.