Textbook Kids

I studied middle and secondary grades education for a few years. About two years of my undergrad and one year of grad school. I thought there would be a textbook-perfect answer to get kids to behave well and learn at the fastest pace possible.

Boy was I so dumb.

In reality, every educator has a different method, and many of them are awesome and many are terrible. There are a quite possibly literally a million textbooks about children's behavior, but there is no real actual tangible textbook perfect behavior management plan. Because kids are crazy and unique and unpredictable... as they should be.

I used to have a classroom full of insane but hilarious and awesome kids. I would come to my grad classes in the evening and ask my professors, "What they heck should I have done when they started farting on me and saying it was an accident? What the heck should I have done when I asked them to make up their own geometry problem, and then they drew problem that vaguely resembled a cartoon penis?" And they gave me different answers. And I'd try different things the next week. And nothing was ever perfect.

The absolutely most frustrating feeling in the world was when my observer would come watch me teach and give feedback. She would watch me teaching, watch kids misbehaving, and I'd ask what I could do differently. She'd be like, "Oh, just keep going! You're doing fine! They'll catch up."

Now I still work with kids, but in a different role that's MUCH better for my sanity. But every once in a while I still have a run in with an insane kid who just tries so hard to rub you the wrong way, ya know? I'm coming to terms with the fact that there is no textbook-perfect answer for wonderfully behaving happy smiling listening children. Children are happier when they're running and yelling and teasing their buddies.

I'm finding that in lieu of one perfect textbook answer for behavior, there are instead a million "good" answers, and they're unique for every child. Some kids need to be hugged when they're crying, but some need to be ignored and some need a calm distracting conversation. Some kids refuse to finish their craft and you can encourage them to half-heartedly do it, and others you just have to have a conversation and make sure they understand what the point of the craft was, and forget the finished product.

The trick isn't to learn the books. It's to learn the kids.