By Mario A. Dozal
The Essential 55: An award-winning educator’s rules for discovering the successful student in every child is a book written by Ron Clark, an educator who currently runs a charter school in Atlanta, Georgia. I originally chose this book because of the great word of mouth reviews it had received and because I thought it fit the topic that I wanted go with that looked at what behaviors educators in middle schools were doing to inspire students to strive to continue their education. However after reading a bit of the main text, I didn’t see it as being as positively deviant as other books we’ve read on the subject. The examples of PD we’ve dealt with so far have mainly focused on malnourished children in Vietnam and MRSA prevention in hospitals, things that are directly in front of you and easy to see. Instead, here was a long list of rules with Ron Clark providing real-life experiences as examples under each one. However I went back and re-read the introduction to look for clues and it was there that several popped out at me that hadn’t the first time through. The first of these was the area in which Ron taught. Ron Clark describes his first teaching job ever as being in North Carolina school that was “75 percent minority and most of the kids were on free or reduced-price lunch,” and his class as being “demanding, high-energy fifth graders, many of whom had behavior problems and learning disabilities.” (Clark, p. xxiv) Ron would later go on to teach in Harlem, another area with a high number of minorities. This area that he first began teaching in is close to the demographics of the area that I’d like to study so this itself is a perfect fit for comparing his traits to those of other teachers. Also, if one of the main characteristics of PD is that you get others to take action and improve their status with resources they already have, then Ron Clark teaches PD. If he could use the students that other teachers had no success with, in parts of the U.S. that are traditionally looked down upon, and manage to inspire them, change the way their outlook on life, and the way society looks at them too, then he obviously is a positive deviant. Thus although I didn’t think so, his rules show that not only is he a positive deviant but he helps create future ones.
Some of the actions that he tells students to take are simple enough that it makes you wonder why the students aren’t already doing them. For example, one of the rules states that students should make eye contact at all time and give their complete attention to whoever is speaking. Once again, this is something that I think we assume children should already know and be practicing but he’s re-enforcing the action in the classroom and teaching the kids who may not already be practicing basic manners. Another one of his rules says that students must say thank you within three seconds of receiving something or it will be taken away. The fact that he recounts a story of an ex-fifth grade student who still says thank you in the twelfth grade shows that his method works because even after all these years that student still says thank you when receiving something. The student does the action they were taught and they don’t deviate from that at all. It should also be noted that Ron Clark only mentions the more formal “thank you”, not “thanks” or any other variation as a response which seems to support the idea of teaching students proper manners.
My favorite rules however were the last 7 rules because they focused on giving the students life lessons that would help them through life. Many times, and especially in today’s teaching world, teachers are expected to teach whatever is in a book and they never deviate from that path. Instead Ron Clark preaches that in addition the lesson, teachers should teach their students about being happy in life and standing up for what they believe in and what is right. With teachers playing a big role in the development of children throughout life, what Ron Clark preaches there is very important as it informs students that they don’t have to just settle for what is expected of them. These rules re-enforce the idea that a child can make something more of themselves if they work hard and that above all else, they should be happy in their lives and surround themselves with people they love.
In conclusion I found this to be a great book choice and one that while not directly associated with positive deviance, certainly displays some characteristics through its author Ron Clark and the rules themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment