Quote of the week - without any shade of doubt - comes from an article from my Middle Level Psych. class - an article named Health for Life. It says, "We have to admit that everyone, to some extent, is odd." I just love that!
The point of this particular article was to discuss the concerns of what used to be an 'individual quirk' that made someone stand out, different, individual...is now, more often than not, a reason for medication. The author questions where the divide is between a child needing help and a child whose personality should be embraced. A tough questions indeed; especially coming on top of 5 other articles that range from 'Medicating Young Minds' to 'As More Kids Train for Sports Like Pros, They're Suffering Grown-Up Injuries.' One of the articles even addresses the responsibility that teachers have to work with adolescents to watch for group pressure and to help guide them - which I thought was really more of a parent task, but evidently not!
Which brings me to another thought......during my New Hartford RTI session on Friday, Mrs. Becker commented that the main difference between teaching now and when she started, 28 years ago, is that parents now expect teacher to bring up their kids for them. There is no concern about kids doing or not doing homework and she said that the only parents who get upset about kids having to stay late for their version of detention (much more pleasantly named 'ZAP') when assignments are not completed, are the ones who are worried about their child missing a sports practice or, even worse, event.
Here's my favorite though - and we wonder why kids have the wrong focus - 6-8 students left their reading intervention early last week (they are in the class because their reading is well below standard) for a football game. Yes, it is OK to fail reading as long as you are in 'the team'. Heck of a message. What happened to being benched until your grades met standard?
So, where was I? Oh yes, quote of the week! I think that a little bit of 'odd' is a good thing.......but then, too much odd, makes life tough for all around. So, who gets to make the decision about how much is too much?
There's the question to ask.
How much odd is too much?
And, what is normal, anyway?
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