Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Critical transition points

In the ed biz, of which I am a small part, there is occasional talk of "critical transition points": typically this means the changes between undergraduate and graduate programs, or between high school and college, etc.  I don't know, but I suspect that similar critical transitions have been identified all the way down to birth.
But today, LOML and I encountered another critical transition.  And it's one in which the classroom and the teacher and the classmates remain constant.
We had a note today from Boo's teacher explaining that essentially the whole class had been misbehaving, being disrespectful to various teachers, not paying attention, and making a racket when quiet work was called for.  And Boo had a page of lines she'd written, along the lines of "I will be respectful at all times"...
To me, this is another critical transition: from child who is basically good in class all the time, to wilful, perhaps openly disobedient child, challenging authority.  And it appears that the whole class is at the transition together.
We've read the riot act to Boo.  We've apologised to her teacher.  We've told Boo that she needs to apologise to her teacher.  There's a buzz going around on the phone between various parents, discussing what's going on.

I wasn't ready for this yet.   I recall being a bit older when I was rebellious in class.  But ready or not, here it comes.

Yours, pondering what to do if bad behaviour continues,
N.

1 comment:

awareness said...

Group dynamics and their stages happen during all ages......forming, storming, norming, performing....
On top of that, developmentally, they are testing the waters with respect to independence AND understanding the roles people play within a group setting. It's all normal stuff. The re-establishment of rules, expectations and structure is the key, as well as discussion on feelings and empathy. :)

Good stuff here!