Love and Affection. Learning. Report Cards. Fritz Redl

I originally posted these quotes (see bottom of post) over a year ago. They resonate deeply within me.

Love and Affection by Today is a Good Day on Flickr. Click image to view source.

Love and Affection by Today is a Good Day on Flickr. Click image to view source.

Love and affection can not be bartering tools. They just need to be. I believe they are conditions for learning, for real learning to happen. But what is real learning? It’s learning beyond the test. Learning beyond the classroom. It’s collaborating with others to move forward in whatever you might be working on – for students it can be learning about work ethic and motivation by spending extra time to make sure you are on the right track, to make sure you will be successful. For teachers it can be the same thing when we spend extra time collaborating with each other and with our students to make sure we are all successful.

I want my students to believe that my love and affection is there whether they do well or not. Of course I want them to succeed, but I certainly hope they do not seek me out after school in order to ‘win’ love and affection. I hope they seek me out because they sense the caring and because they want to succeed for themselves.

It’s report card time. I have a love/hate relationship with these times of the year. Because I have some students who are going to fail this semester. At least, they are going to fail on paper. But these same students have made such amazing advances compared to where they have come from. Advances that have nothing to do with the number that just might crush them on that government mandated piece of paper that reports on content, not process called the report card.

I’m off to battle the numbers.
later.


Image: Fritz Redl found on Milestones: A Timeline of Wheelock College

“The children must get plenty of love and affection
whether they deserve it or not: they must be assured of the basic quota of
happy, recreational experiences whether they seem to have it coming or not.
In short, love and affection, as well as the granting of gratifying life
situations, cannot be made the bargaining tools of educational or even
therapeutic motivation, but must be kept tax-free as minimal parts of the
youngsters’ diet, irrespective of the problems of deservedness” (1952).

“Boredom will always remain the greatest enemy of school disciplines. If
we remember that children are bored, not only when they don’t happen to
be interested in the subject or when the teacher doesn’t make it
interesting, but also when certain working conditions are out of focus
with their basic needs, then we can realize what a great contributor to
discipline problems boredom really is. Research has shown that boredom
is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much
frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious
opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show.” (1966)

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(originally Published on: June 3, 2007 at 8:16 pm)

4 Comments

  • michelle says:

    Teacher written report comments are the closest to truth in reporting. I’m for revamping the report card.

  • Tracy says:

    No such thing as overposting! Though your long comments are a bit overwhelming – there is so much I connect with and want to read every bit.

    I especially appreciate the links to different resources you are providing.

    Thank you!
    Tracy

  • mike says:

    Hi Trace….hope this finds you well and sorry if i have been over posting since wandering into your site!

    Looking thru your post i stumbled here and was amazed to find Fritz!! I first found Fritz at a yard sale… picked up a book with the title : CHILDREN WHO HATE. Did not know Fritz then but the title sure described to me early in my career some of the kids i was struggling to teach.

    Well…to make a long story short… it dawned on me that Fritz had to have others…followers if you will and with more than a little work ( pre-internet days ) i found his students!!!

    Redl and Wineman had some great students.

    William Morse and Nick Long refined the concept of the
    life space interview.

    I found Nick Long and became associated with his organization.
    Nick Long also worked with Larry Brendtro from the Reclaiming Youth Network. ( See… we are all kinda connected! )

    His work is really also very valuable when working to actualize the Circle of Courage.

    Here is a link: http://www.lsci.org/welcome

    So… there is a direct link to the work of Redl…. his work is still alive…. yet it is hard to find these days…with everyone focused here on “scientifically based research” and reading and math.

    Anyone trying to teach troubled kids needs this stuff.

    Thanks ….seeing Redl brought a huge smile to my face!!

    be well… mike

  • Tracy,

    Research has shown that boredom
    is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much
    frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious
    opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show”

    Wow, isn’t that the truth. When students don’t get it and become frustrated, they find ways to cope. I’ve talked to students about this and they tell me they cope in class by being withdrawn, rebelious etc. When I see that behaviour, I ask myself what needs changing and then it’s back to the drawing board.

    Great post. Thanks.

    Elona Hartjess last blog post at [site]..Being creative and thinking outside the box- using emoticons to tell the story

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