“All kids need is a little help, a little hope, and somebody who believes in them.” Magic Johnson
When someone expects you to be successful at something, do you think it has an impact on whether you succeed or not? Think back in your lifetime about a situation when a parent, teacher, or other adult believed you could do something. Was it to achieve your best time at a swim meet or to ace a test in Algebra? Whatever it was, how did that person’s belief in you affect your success? What did they do or say to motivate you to reach your goal?
For many years I have participated in non-profit organizations that award college scholarships to students. These youth were either in the foster care system and/or may be the first in their family to attend college. Ninety-nine percent of these scholarship recipients credited a strong adult influence in their lives for helping them succeed in school. So many, in their acceptance speeches, thank a teacher who believed in them. I will always remember when one of the students said, “My math teacher, Mrs. Evans, told me I was college material.” No one in her family had ever attended college, and she never thought she would until her teacher made that statement and expected she would go on to a university.
However, many times we educators don‘t follow Mrs. Evans’ example, and we fall into the trap of lowering our expectations for those students who are living in poverty, are English learners, or who have family situations that don’t support education. It isn’t because we don’t care. It’s because we aren’t aware of the profound effect our expectations, and the words we use, have on a student’s success. We need to witness their story and have compassion for their situation, but not lower our expectations and think they can’t accomplish what their more privileged peers can. We must never discount a student because of the conditions they are born into. We need to be what Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, calls a “warm demander – one who focuses on building strong relationships with students, then draws on that wellspring of trust to hold students to high standards of deep engagement with course content.”
Think about this! Michelle Obama was raised in a small apartment, in the South Side of Chicago, where her family lived together with relatives, and she has accomplished so much. More than likely, Michelle Obama had a “warm demander” in her life, or maybe more than one.
Our job is to draw out the best in our students by showing that we care and believing in them. We can do this by observing and listening to them and asking them about their interests and goals. We can encourage them to try new things, while letting them know it’s okay to make mistakes as we learn from them. We should encourage our students to express their ideas in writing, write about their experiences, and respond to issues of the day, it can be fantasy or non-fiction. All of us have ideas and opinions about life and the world around us, but sometimes students don’t value the thoughts in their heads. I recall a teacher telling me about 3rd grade Javier, she had just given a class writing assignment asking the students to describe their favorite animal. As she walked around the room she noticed Javier had not written a word on his paper. She approached him.
“Javier, what animal are you going to write about?”
“I don’t know.” He responded as he lowered his head.
“What’s your favorite animal?”
“Tiger,” he quietly said.
“What do you know about tigers?”
His head perked up; the beginning of a smile appeared on his face. “Tigers are cats, they have orange and black stripes.”
“What else do you know about them?”
“They live in the jungle, and they’re fierce.”
“Perfect, that’s what I want you to write on your paper.”
“Really, I can write that?”
“Yes, you know a lot about tigers, now tell me about them on your paper.”
He got to work, and when he was finished writing, he had composed a beautiful story about tigers and their importance in the world. Javier learned that what he was thinking inside his head about tigers was something worthwhile enough to write down in an essay; he experienced the value of his own thoughts, and to have someone believe that he could write a story about tigers.
