Category Archives: Problems of public education

Rescuing a Child by Stopping Labeling

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“Labeling” is a well known concept in social-pyschology. Apparently not very well known in education. Or known in reverse.

Today, please consider one of my other victory stories. I saved a child. He was labelled as “bad.” I don’t know why. He was being hounded by his first grade teacher. What stories! And was being treated like he was recalcitrant and behind. He was not. He was acting normal, but he was bored — because he was extra bright.

I was Academic Dean. I was in the classroom helping a new to the school but experienced teacher. Thank God, I saw what as going on!

Let’s not leave it at one child rescued academically — and surely you know a bright 7 year old boy, labelled as bad would end up with behavior problems. The juvenile halls are filled with “learning disabled” boys! Let’s learn how to avoid these problems.

Let’s be sure our children, and our students are labeled. And let’s reform teaching all together — but that will be another book and another episode.

The power of words. No where more powerful than in the ears of a young child!

How to OVERCOME Test Anxiety

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Contrary to the false charity folks (read deceptive communist controllists) we OVERCOME  — or solve problems. So, yes, some student exhibit test anxiety. Better to overcome test anxiety than to spin the yarn that this in a disability that can not be helped and therefore the student should not be expected to learn Math. Good way to induce a problem, and then cement it, and then cause a ruined life and worse off society. No, these problems can be solved — one way or another. If there is a will.

Of course, yes, some of the solution might cause adults to work, or conversely, not get paid quite so much for not working. Still, let’s solve the problem.

She Was NOT “Kicked Out” of Class — How to Handle Controversy in College

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Keying off a post on X.com that sparked a big controversy about ideological indoctrination in colleges and universities, I teach you how to handle controversies in class as a college student. I also expose the trickery in this particular post and how the controversy got sparked. I even give you some tips about how to be effective in the controversy about sexualization and leftist indoctrination in college.Charlie Kirk was effective because he was truthful and knowlegable.

NOTICE AND AVOID DISTRACTION THAT DETRACTS FROM YOUR LIFE

Some people want to make hay by … spin. Other want to pick our pockets or worse while distracting us by getting us to fight with each other. Find out how to avoid this.

So, the incident a couple of weeks ago claimed that a student was kicked out of class for refusing to go along with sexual indoctrination. Actually what the video showed was the professor agreeing to let the student leave, after the student makes some outrageously ignorant comments. She was not kicked out. We don’t have enough of the video to actually know the professor was up to.  What we do hear is not adept, but without context we can not judge that she was indoctrinating the student. Maybe she was, but everyone in the story handled themselves badly.

HERE IS HOW TO PROCEED IN A MORE EFFECTIVE MANNER

Here is how to do better.

Controversy is a must as a subject in college. It is a must because one will face societal controversies when one graduates and becomes a professional. Perhaps that is what the university president meant to say. We don’t know. What we know are a very few words, again, taken out of context. Not a good look.

Just like the student didn’t seem to know the rules of the game of college classroom, so the politician didn’t seem to know the rules of the game about college administration. The college president has no control, or shouldn’t, over the teaching in the classroom.  We already had ongoing controversies about academic freedom and tenure. The politician who started this might indeed know the game of political “gotcha” with regard to media. That is not how we want to controvert issues, not how we want to be lead, and certainly not the kind of character we want to govern.

Let’s get into it.

MORE RESOURCES

Related to this episode,please notice my book on how to not lose your faith while in college.

https://www.lulu.com/search?page=1&sortBy=RELEVANCE&q=not+to+not+lose+your+faith+in+college+sharon+sarles&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00

Also, a teaching series on how to teach (whether your children or your students) in these dangerous times. It is an exegesis of 2 Timothy 1 and 2.  Go to shop. Notice we have a sale.

 

Labeling – Children Live up to What Their Teachers Think of Them

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:22 — 17.9MB)

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Labeling Understood in Social Science

Labeling is a long standing theory in social sciences which basically says that people (and especially children) live up — or down– to what the people (especially the authority figures) around them think about them. A child who is told and expected to be smart, pretty, or competent generally is. A child who is told that she is a slut or he is a dumbass — usually ends up acting that way.

Teachers should know this. It should be in their curricula in college. It certainly is in Introductory Sociology and in Pyschology courses. Why then to teachers demonstrate and live out labeling theory instead of apply the wisdom from knowing about it?

What I’ve Seen

When I was in graduate school in the 1990s, the one Sociological paper about Learning Disabilities found that teachers thought LD was Mental Retardation. When I substituted in 2006, I certainly saw this play out. Teachers treated any “special needs” student with contempt and extraordinarily low expectations. My short time in the class could turn the situation around — but I doubt permanent change would remain.

When I was Academic Dean, I saw teachers make bright student’s life hell because of teacher gossip. When the student is a 7 year old, too bright for the class, and yet bedevilled by negative fantasies of the teacher…. it is exasperating. I was in the classroom. I saw it.

I was not in the classroom of my daughter’s third grade classroom, but the mother of another student let me know that the teacher there used bullying and name-calling regularly in the classroom. We are talking about the 1980s. In front of me, even, the teacher declared that my daughter could not read. But when the teacher turned her back, my daughter turned to the back of the book and read the page fine.

One shudders to consider how labeling is working in today’s hyper-sexualized, extremely disrespectful environment.

Hear the Episode

Let’s consider labeling. It has detrimental effects. Unfortunately, we see these more often with students with diagnoses and learning problems.

It could have good effects. If only….