Bird Droppings February 1, 2011
Reflecting about Dr. Carl G. Jung

“If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” Carl G. Jung

Over the years I have seen this with myself in dealing with students. So often those attributes we see and are upset with we too have within ourselves. It is almost as if we mirror like are seeing these attributes in others. I seldom if ever have given detention but am getting close with one student due to school rules. We each serve three afternoons a semester for detention. Actually since I do not like detention as a punishment not knowing why a kid is in detention and circumstances of punishment I am being a humanistic behaviorist very aware of consequences and behaviors and detention serves little if any deterrent to behaviors it often is connected with.
Although I did design a student referral slip to refer teachers for detention which is what I think should happen. That way the teacher who is handling detention is also serving detention. A few months back while doing my duty in detention which somehow I have a problem with sending kids to another teacher for after school punishment several days after they had the issue. Ninety percent were in detention for being late to first period and I always love it when excuses come up. “Well I pick up a friend and they are always late”, as this person strolls in with a Quick Trip coffee cup or Burger king bagel. Always in the teen vernacular is whatever. So I go to my duty nearly twenty kids in detention. I tell them sit do your work no talking. Of course a few wise kids who want to make cute little noises mimicking bodily functions are always to be found. But all settles in and most are reading or studying. With ten minutes left I offer a ticket out the door. This is always great Learning Focused Schools strategy sort of thing. Ok anyone who can answer can leave now, “what is the life expectancy of the pygmy shrew?” There are blank looks across the room. OK within two months anyone to leave now a close answer. “Fourteen” a student asks and is it is under way wrong answer. Five minutes left “Mr. Bird another question” soon twenty or so questions later and fifteen minutes after detention is over I tell them time is up. Why were these kids here in the first place?

“It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”
Carl G. Jung

Several years back for my capstone in my Masters program I had a slide and used a quote about students have to want to be there to truly learn. It is interesting how learning occurs in AP classes and Honors classes and seems to be less in those classes where we expect failure.

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” Carl G. Jung

In the American Journal of Education November 2005 issue is an article entitled “’Drop-Outs” and ‘Push-Outs’ Finding hope at a school that actualizes the ethic of care” by Wanda Cassidy and Anita Bates. The school in the article is focusing on high risk kids but providing an atmosphere of a caring environment and guess what being the kids are being successful. During my tenure at Piedmont College I participated in a Foxfire course involving the Foxfire Approach to teaching. One exercise is listing attributes of good teachers and good students. At the Whytecliff Education Center, the school this article was based on students in interviews said the number one attribute of a good teacher is someone who will listen. I personally have done the Foxfire list with fifteen or so groups and listening is always at or near the top.

“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” Carl G. Jung

For teachers it is often and for students trying to see and understand the other can be difficult. I watch this every day when students come to me and complain about this teacher or that and the teacher complains about this student or that and the complaints are the same. Many times listening is a factor but perception is one as well. We as adults see a child’s world in adult terms. I picked up several booklets from guidance office yesterday almost sarcastically, one entitled Adolescences and Understanding teenagers which consisted of several cartoons and explanations or why kids do what they do.

“Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.” Carl G. Jung

There are few people in history I would want to meet generally I start my list with Ralph Waldo Emerson, a fellow existentialist and the more I read the more I wonder about everything which is perhaps why I enjoy Emerson. Henry David Thoreau another I would have liked to meet and he so closely ties to Emerson. But of modern folks my list includes several Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Grandpa Niper (my great great grandfather), William Savidge, my grandfather who passed away before I was born and Dr. Carl G. Jung. Jung’s approach to dealing with people has always intrigued me. He split from Freud because he saw another realm so to say he saw a spiritual aspect. From his view this was not necessarily religion but something that we have beyond physical rationalizations.

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Carl G. Jung

I turned a young man away yesterday even though his line was good. Coming by my room on a bathroom pass to ask what we were doing in class he was just interested. The same young man who was in my room just before the bell and left and then walked around the entire school to get to his class in the room next door history had caught up to him.

“The healthy man does not torture others – generally it is the tortured that turn into torturers.” Carl G. Jung

There are reasons why kids do what they do, be it mimicking bodily functions or giggling out loud when something strikes them funny even though it disrupts the class. We accuse of this or that and never really look or listen to why.

“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” Carl G. Jung

Acceptance unlocks the door by at least trying to understand and see beyond the symptoms.

“Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom.” Erik Erikson

I used this as a quote for the day and my status a few days ago and have included in several Bird Droppings along the way, it is a powerful thought. I spoke with a dear friend yesterday about the current state of affairs in Special education around d the country and her response was we may be farther back then we were in 1973 when we finally had mandatory education for all children with IDEA, interesting. I have argued for several years about looking simply at deficits and not disabilities especially with Emotional issues. I look back at the article in the 2005 November American Journal of education about a caring school and difference it made makes me want to care about students again. I wonder if we can or was that in legislation too no caring allowed under section 234.234 on page 569 in small print. Please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird