They can't do that

Something's been bothering me lately.  Maybe it was the article I read about teacher expectations.  Maybe it's because people have been discussing it on twitter.  I don't know.  But it's bothering me.

It was the last day of school and I was visiting classrooms, saying goodbye to my students for the summer.  At the time, I was serving as the instructional math coach on campus and I didn't have a class of my own.  I popped into my friend's class near the end the day.  The last day was a half day of school for some reason. That's a whole other post.  Anyways, my friend taught Pre-K and she had both her morning and afternoon groups that day.  The district, in its infinite wisdom, decided that since it was a half day that both groups of kids should come to school.  So my friend ended up with more kids than any other teacher on campus.  Remember, these were Pre-K students, 5 years old.  She had over 25 kids in there, I think it was 28.  She was ecstatic to see me or anyone else for that matter that day.  "I gotta go to the restroom," she shuffled past me.  I looked around at all their little faces.  "Hi Mrs. Wilt!" some of them blurted out.  "Hey guys, whatcha doin?"  "Nothing" they answered. They were all sitting on the huge, colorful carpet that every Pre-K and Kindergarten teacher in the world has. My friend was excellent at classroom management.  Those kids knew their spot and they were sitting in it.  Some of them squirming and bouncing up and down, but in their spot.  So I decided to play a game with them.

  "We're going to pretend that we're going on a picnic," I smiled.  "Yay!" some of them shouted. "We are pretending that we're going on a picnic. This is a listening and remembering game.  You have to bring something to our picnic and you have to remember what everyone else is bringing."  I had every kid's attention.  They had never played this game.  I was excited.  "Ok, Also, what you bring has to begin with the next letter of the alphabet.  I'll start.  I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring an apple.  My thing started with the letter A so the next person's thing has to begin with a what?"  "B!" most of them yelled out.  I knew they knew the alphabet.  They were going into Kindergarten next year.  And they had my friend, who was an awesome teacher.  The first little girl looked at me and I prompted her, "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring..." at that time my friend jogged back into the room.  "Thanks," she whispered.  I motioned back to the girl and said, "I'm going on a picnic and," my friend interrupted.  "What are you playing?"  "You know, that I'm going on a picnic game.  They have to remember what everyone said before them.  You know," I told her.  She said, and I'll never forget this, "They can't do that." In front of them.  I looked at their faces.  Some of them were still smiling because they were too far away to hear our conversation.  But the ones who were close, they heard.  They heard.

This is where, thank God, I told her, "Yes they can.  They're going into Kinder.  And they know the alphabet, right?" nodding my head. "Yes," she looked skeptical.  "Ok, go ahead."  I was so surprised that she didn't think her kids could play this game.  It was the ABCs for goodness sake! I was actually getting mad at her inside.  In my head I'm thinking, "I can't believe my friend said that.  I can't believe she doesn't think they can play a memory game.  She's a great teacher.  Why can't they do this?"

I motioned back to the little girl.  "I'm going on a picnic," she jumps in with me,"and I'm going to bring an apple," I point to myself, "and a..."  she's thinking..."a banana!"  "Ok, good," I tell her and point to the next kid.  "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring an apple, a banana and a...cat!"  The kids giggle.  "Good! Next," I gestured to the next little face.  I was making a point now.  These kids were going to play this game and show her!  My heart was beating faster.  They kids were now on their knees, waiting for the next classmate and anxiously waiting their turn.  I didn't even look at my friend. I pretended she wasn't there.  We kept going.  "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring an apple, a banana, a cat and a doughnut"   "Elephant," giggles.  "French fries"  "Grapes"  "Hot dog"

I really don't remember what they said for each letter.  It was a few years ago.  We got to the letter M I think when the PA system came on.  "Happy last day of school.  Hope you have a fun and safe summer! At this time, we need all car riders to the front please, all car riders to the front,"  Kids started standing up.  Game over.  "Bye!" they waved at us, some of them coming over to hug their teacher.  She lined them up and waited for buses to be called.  I'm not sure what happened next.  But I do remember thinking, "Ha!  They did it! Your kids played the picnic game and you didn't think they could. So there!"  I was like a little kid!  But it's true!  I was so full of pride for them I could've burst.  They proved her wrong.  They could do it.  I'm so, so glad when she said, "They can't do that," I didn't agree and say, "Oh, Ok."

The article I mentioned earlier is one that came out in 2012.  It describes an experiment done in the 60s with a group of teachers and kids.  The teachers were told that their upcoming kids were really intelligent, on the verge of being gifted.  The kids, actually, were just regular kids.  They didn't score high on the test.  In fact, some of them were "at-risk" for not being successful.  If you want to read the article, I've attached the link.  But the experiment showed that these kids grew, and did better than expected that year and the year following. Not because they were "gifted".  Not because they had high IQs. But because their teachers believed that they were smart.  So they were.


Teachers' Expectation Can Influence How Students Perform