Week 3 Readings: Troublemaking
Angela C. Stanley
Week 3 Readings: Marcus: On Being Good, A Letter to
Teachers: On Love and Learning Freedom, Juvenile Justice, and (Dis)Ability
The
visible/invisible codes of conduct that govern Marcus’s school are somewhat similar
to any other school that I have been in.
The teacher is the authority and the children are the students under
him/her. When I reflect on growing up
and being in school, rarely did I ever feel a personal connection with my
teacher outside of the minimal anomalies.
Like Marcus’s school, the rules were standard: you listen, you learn,
you go home. If you do not conform to the
school’s structure, the school has a special place for you to “take a break,”
in which case it’s hard to determine whether the term “taking a break” is a
reward or punishment.
Additionally, after
reading the Juvenile Justice and (Dis)Ability articles, I reflected even deeper
about the structure of my classrooms growing up. How we were all divided into groups based on
our abilities/inabilities. In middle
school, it didn’t take a genius to find out that the “green group” were the “smart
kids” and the “red group” were the “dumb ones.”
This formula followed us to high school where, sure enough, the green
kids became AP/Honors students and the red kids were the borderline standard of
academic teaching.
Currently,
I work as a Milieu Therapist for Bradley Hospital in the Intensive Behavioral
Treatment program. My duties include
in-home ABA therapy with a child diagnosed with a developmental or learning
disability, educate parents on common symptoms and techniques regarding their
child’s diagnosis, and promote communication to increase the frequency of
social interaction, play initiation, and self-care skills. Because my job is strictly in homes, depending
on the family’s desires, we MTs range in our role. At times, families refer to us as teachers,
some friends, and sometimes we are thought of as babysitters. If you are not familiar with ABA, I’ve posted
the link to IBT’s information and two youtube videos that give you a slight
window into what my life has looked like for the past 6 years.
IBT information: https://www.lifespan.org/centers-services/center-autism-and-developmental-disabilities-cadd/home-based-treatment-services
Discrete Trials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp_gzUTCm8g
“Troublemaking”
at my current position isn’t necessarily a term we use. When it comes to favorable and unfavorable
behaviors, we measure in terms of compliance and noncompliance. In half hour intervals, part of my duty is to
track compliance on a scale of Always, Sometimes, and Never. Compliance is measured by multiple factors
and is ultimately up to the therapist to decide whether the child is exhibiting
compliant behavior or not. When I am at
work, I judge compliance by various factors.
For example, I ask myself questions such as was the child visibly
attempting to follow direction regardless of the ability to do so, or was the
motive behind disruptive behavior focus oriented or passion-driven? In other words, even if the child I am
working with had trouble maintaining focus, I do not consider that being noncompliant. However, if the child did not follow
directions in a protesting or physically aggressive manner, I would consider
that noncompliant.
Noncompliance
is mainly disregarded or redirected. Our
duty as an MT is to focus on reinforcing positive behaviors and lifestyle skills,
therefore, giving attention to noncompliant behavior would contrast our mission. There are never any consequences for
noncompliance, but instead we provide incentives for compliant behavior, such
as permission to do something highly favorable (example: spend time on the iPad
or get a snack that they rarely get the chance to eat).
Hi Angela. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post. It brought me back to my elementary and high school years wherein students were also grouped according to their abilities/ inabilities. In our school however, the division was by classroom. We had classrooms A to E wherein classroom A would be where the top A students were and as you probably can already guess, classroom E would be where the rowdy and "unwanted" students were placed. The criteria and evaluation for placing students in these classrooms are being done in a yearly basis. I distinctly remember starting high school in the B section and ending up in the E section during my junior year as that was when I thought being a rebel was cool. Being in both the good and "bad" groupings in my school, I saw how the ways of teaching were different and how it has it's pros and cons. I just know that when I was in the E section, some teachers would come to class and already expects the worst from us. It was as if they already given up on teaching us and that we were already labeled as incorrigible and failures. Although I must say that they were some teachers who did the opposite. They exerted more effort in their teaching style and mediums in making sure that we have the best chance in getting good grades.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I enjoyed watching the videos and learning more about your role as an MT. Aside from being a residential director, I also do part-time work as a behavior specialist and your job responsibilities are sort of similar to what I do with the kids I support(ed).