They can't even...

I remembered vividly tonight a lesson that I never believed I learned. Bev Hamilton told me a story about a school she put her son in, about a way of teaching without can'ts. A school where the student only "can do" things and each time he learns something new it is one more "I can". There is no negative connotation or knowledge of "I can't" in this school.

Well with the strange exception of the belief that the human soul can't travel faster than 60km/h...but we should allow for eccentricities.

Anyway, I thought the whole school was very strange, but now I think this is wonderful. Students are taught that each time they reach a barrier, limit, challenge they feel that can't do NOW, they should say to them selves. When I started here I thought I couldn't ___________________, and now I have done it. For example I thought I couldn't climb to the top of the jungle gym, and now i can. Then they say to them selves, now I think I can't overcome this task, so I will try, but it is okay if i can't do it now, i know that I can.

And moreover it isn't just the students themselves who promote and practice this thought pattern, to a much greater extent the teachers promote it, reminding students when they over come a challenge, and helping students recognize and appreciate (and be thankful for) their "I cans."

Particular this school works on integrating rather than segregating students. Exceptional kids (like Bev's son) work with regular kids and with other exceptional kids. So while Bev's son at 5 might look at himself and say I can read all the books in the book box. And then look at little ADHD Stevie and think he is so dumb because he can't. A teacher will intervene and say, when Stevie started here he couldn't sit still for five minutes and now he can sit and read a whole book.

In this way students are taught to see not what their classmates can't do, but what they can. What a marvelous lesson! To look at and examine what those around us can do. I have been practicing it recently, just quietly with myself, thinking about what i can do in class that I couldn't do in September. What I can speak and understand in Japanese that i couldn't do in August. And when i am frustrated with a student, I look at and remember what they can do, and refocus my energy into what we can do together.