Names Do Hurt Us

Kajder, S. (2008). The book trailer: Engaging teens through technologies. Educational Leadership 65 (6)

"Garret has participated in programs that identified him as a struggling reader, a reluctant student, an at-risk student, and, most recently, a striving reader. And what has he learned? "School just tells what I'm not-how what I do outside doesn't count," he explained. Garret's low achievement in school led him to question his abilities, which led him to further disengage. "I stopped doing anything 'cause it wasn't going anywhere and I didn't see myself in any of it."

When I read this section of Kajder's "The Book Trailer: Engaging Teens Through Technology" I can't help but to remember all the days I was called names as a child growing up. Usually I just yelled mean things back and that would be the end of my hurt feelings for the moment. But after reading the above, I couldn't begin to imagine the mental toll the labeling which is so widely used in education has on our children. All the names that professionals used to label Garret were all hurtful and I feel as adults we often forget that students are smarter than we think. Just because we give something a fluffy name doesn't mean we are fooling anyone. It's sort of like how they used to label elementary classes. If you were in the Bees program versus the Hornets class, everyone knew which one was considered the slower class with or without the insect name.

After reading this quote I also realized again just how important it is to teach to different modalities and how important it is to honor and spotlight each student's strength, whether it falls in line with traditional skills which are valued in school, because in the real world someone who is power point genius is just as important as the next Jeffrey Deaver. And as educators we need to let our children know this, otherwise we will lose them and their talent.