There’s so much that students don’t have control over in their school lives.
So how do parents, teachers, and academic coaches try to protect their sense of control? Is that even an important thing to try and do?
Last week I introduced that in July, I’d be doing a series about what academic coaching has in common with alternatives to calling the police. Click here for more background about why.
Today, I muse about one thing the police have in common with many teachers/academic coaches/parents — control over.
Here’s the video:
What do you think? Is a sense of control important in students’ lives? How do the adults who work with students help protect that? How do students defend it for themselves?
I’d love to know our thoughts.
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I like the idea but for some reason, the word “protecting” kept getting to me. If we are “protecting” their sense of control it makes it sound like, to me, that we are in control of their sense of control. I know people get caught up in “semantics” but semantics is about “meaning”. I think maybe honoring, remending, highlighting, or encouraging students about their sense of control seems a better approach. If it is my job to “protect” their sense of control, what happens when I’m not there to protect it?
Instead, if we honor their sense of control. Remind them where they have control within an assignment. Highlight for them examples of their areas of control and encourage them to exercise their sense of control in specific situations, then they become in charge of protecting their own sense of control.
Just a thought.