forever hopeful

My dog was attentively watching us eat breakfast yesterday. She is a beautiful well trained dog who knows that she will not be handed any table scraps, however, when my children were toddlers and wanted to show their independence they would pour their cereal into the bowls by themselves. The problem is that Cheerios bounce. While 90% of the cereal will make it into the bowls, the initial 10% that bounced will be pounced upon by an eager dog, who as Pavlov has well instructed us, will be alerted to the forthcoming feast by the mere sound of the cereal box being taken out of the pantry. My children are all young adults now and can pour a bowl of cereal without and any food shrapnel ricocheting out of the bowl, but the dog is forever faithful, forever hopeful.

The antithesis of this type of unabashed faith in a positive result is learned helplessness. The students afflicted with learned helplessness are forever doubtful. Doubtful of their competence, doubtful about their confidence. They are the Eeyores of the classroom. Theirs is a tale of woe.

A standard refrain of the student with learned helplessness is "I don't get it." That simple phrase can be devastating to the educational climate of a classroom. It is a refrain that can lead to a whole chorus of negativity, a virus that extends to students with lower self confidence. So, whenever one of my students would use this phrase my rebuttal would be "yet". As in: "I don't get it yet." This may sound like a trivial change to transtion to learned optimism, but after a short exposure, the other classmates would chime in "yet" if the student persisted in his or her use of the truncated phrase. I would only approach the student with assistance if they stated the anticipatory phraseology. I then ask them to define their problem, acknowledge it, and tell them I will check in with them after they have attempted an answer. This is usually enough for them to engage in some ownership in their learning.

A positive interaction with a student suffering from learned helplessness may have to occur 50 times to break the cycle. 50 times! How many educators have the patience to encourage the naysayer 50 times before becoming discouraged, frustrated, or angered by the child's refusal to engage in learning?

Educators must be forever hopeful, forever faithful. A student with learned helplessness is an opportunity for us to demonstrate what draws us to the profession; the chance to enrich the lives of children. The cry of "I don't get it" or hopefully "I don't get it yet" should be our Pavlovian symbol that triggers our eagerness to show our stuff.

Make a good day.

Tod

PS. Some good Eeyore quotations: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Dell/4500/quo_eor.htm

PSS. List of books and articles by Martin Seligman on learned helplessness: http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/lh.htm