Episode 30
00:00:00 Jon Bergmann: Welcome back to the Reach Every Student Podcast. I'm your host, Jon Bergman. Last week, I shared some stories about my 40-year career in education, and I received such positive feedback that I thought I would continue to give some lessons from my almost four-decade career. You know, for most of my career, I taught high school chemistry. It's arguably maybe one of the most difficult courses for a kid to take in high school and also one of the most potentially dangerous courses. And the story I want to tell you is a story about David. I'll never forget David. Let me tell you a story. You see, I had a rule in my chemistry class that there was no horseplay, right? It could be a dangerous class and if students Did horseplay stuff. Well, we could have a problem, right? too many chances of someone to get hurt. So, but there's also sort of a weird problem in the chemistry lab. Maybe you remember this from high school chemistry, but in a lab, there's some objects with great temptation. You see, we had these little bottles that contained just water, but they could double as squirt guns. Well, David, I think you can imagine that. He decided to have some fun one day and, I was looking away. Of course you can't, I, you know, he's in the experiment lab deal and David squirted some people. I told him to knock it off. But then he did it again and I just can't have kids, horse planes, acids, there's dangerous chemicals around. And I said, David, that's it. You're done. You are going to have to, you cannot continue doing this because it was a problem. He had problems before. I said, that's it. We're not, you're not going to finish the lab. Well, David exploded. Oh my gosh. He told me who I was, where I came from. And he told me where to go and he told me what direction to take. I think you could draw the picture. The boy lost it. Now, I want you to say this. I liked David and David had a bad day. And at that point I said, not only do you not get to do the lab, but you are now kicked out of my class. You need to go see the principal. And so he eventually got to the principal. I did the whole thing. I filled out the form, told him what happened. The principal then, you know, backed me up. I had a great principal and he, suspended David for, I don't know, a couple days. I don't remember. This is many years ago. And then when David was about to return, you see, he had really, you know, he profaned me in front of the entire class. He'd said some nasty, horrible things. And I met with David and I said, David, before you come back, what you have to do is you have to apologize in front of the class. You made a public spectacle of your. Of, of your saying, what you said, and you need to apologize. Now, David, this is me talking to him. David, I like you. And I've had bad days in my life. You had a bad day, but you need to apologize. And he said, I won't do it. I said, well, then you're not welcome back in my class. And he said, what? I mean, he was upset at me. I said, that's, that's going to be my expectation is that you come back and that you apologize to the class. Well, day goes by, he's not there. Next day, he's not there. Next day, he's not there. Now, by the way, I'm communicating with my principal what's going on. I've asked him if he's, if he's basically got my back on this and he said, absolutely. So he met with David and long story short, David came back and said, man, I blew it. He said in front of the class, he was apologetic. I held the line. My principal was awesome. And that he said, yeah, this is a very important thing for David to do. And. Yeah. so why don't I talk about this story in terms of how do we reach every student? Well, you know, that's not the end of the story. Because you see, that was, you know, school year number one, if you will. That spring, we were preparing to start an advisory kind of program. So this is new in those days. Probably many of you have been in advisory programs in your schools. Where the students would come to a teacher and they would, you know, we would have a glorified homeroom, but it would also be a time for you to really connect with students. But since we were just getting started, our leadership team at the school wanted to make sure that it was successful. So they sent out a poll to students and they got to pick which teacher they felt like they could connect with most. Well, I bet you can figure out what happens. On the first day of school, on the next year, who shows up in my advisory room but David. And David, you see… David needed the structure. He needed someone to lovingly say, I care about you, but I'm gonna hold you to a standard. And Can I say this? We need to hold kids to standards.
00:05:05 Jon Bergmann: Students don't need you to be their friends. They don't need you to let them get away with stuff. What they often need is a firm, let me say, yet loving hand that holds them to standards. You know, years ago, I had a chance to listen to a man speak who'd been like a Boy Scout for like fifty years or, I mean, a long time, maybe forty years. I'm forty years into teaching, so maybe I'm that guy. and someone asked him what he'd learned about boys. And this is what he said. Every boy, he says, when a boy comes to me at, at a boy scout camp, he needs to know two things. Who's in charge. And if the person in charge cares for me. Now, I don't think this necessarily applies just to boys, okay? But that's the context I heard it in. You see, everyone needs to know that there are expectations. Those rules give students a boundary, a place where they know how they're supposed to behave. You see, You, you need both, right? If you just have rules and not care, then it, they're going to fight that. Honestly, that's my experience and it's not going to end well, but if you have. You're nice, but no rules. No one respects you. And it's you of chaos, absolute chaos. And I will confess that sometimes that happens. Heck, Let's be a hundred percent honest, you know, just walked out of my room, just out of my room, not ten minutes ago was this class I struggle with the most. And the students are off the wall. they've got this thing going on now where they come in and they bark high school juniors and seniors. And I had to put the law down and say, we're not going to make animal sounds. Actually, I said, you can't bark. And then they meowed. I don't know what's going on there. It's, it's a class where there are, well, two girls and fifteen young men, something like that. I don't know the numbers, but it's, it's very high proportion of young men and they, I don't know. And I'm not sure, to be honest, I've got total control of this class. I wish I did, and I wish I was like the perfect teacher who had everything going for him, but that's not me. So anyways, boys need, or people need to know who's in charge and they care, right? So all students need this. And so how will this story help you to reach every student? I think what we've got to do is to lovingly hold students accountable for the actions. They need the structure. They need you to not let things slide. You know, I have another, um, story, um, or related. I think that you'll, I'll try and like land this ship in a little bit here. I've been reading Jonathan Haidt's book, The Anxious Generation, and it's a book I've not been able to put down. It is really riveting. If you've not picked up a copy, you absolutely must pick up a copy of this book. Uh, and he, he makes the case that we are in the midst of a mental health crisis for our children and adolescents. Um, and one of the issues that's posited by this book though is that students don't feel good about themselves. So from this old teacher, me, right, let me tell you how to help your students feel good about themselves, okay? It's not to be just nice to them, but here's what I want to say. You have to get them to do hard things. And then let them succeed. And when they do the hard thing and they succeed, their self-esteem or whatever you want to call it is going to rise and they'll become less anxious and they will become more confident. You see, I want to raise up a generation that will be more resilient to the anxiety that's plaguing their generation. You know, that might take the form of the story about David where you hold a line, right? Or it might be. Just something that you do as a course. You hold your students to a standard. You might, for example, in my chemistry classes at the end of every year, I assigned a monster project. I've done this. It's actually my master's thesis. I got my master's in 1991. So this is a long time ago. So I've done this for decades. And when students are done, they turn in approximately a thirty sometimes forty page lab report. Now, when I introduce this to my students, They look at me like I'm from another planet. They'd say there's no way I will be able to do a thirty to forty page paper. I do have them work in groups of two. And also to do this, they have to like review everything they've learned in a chemistry class and connect all the pieces. And it is the best thing I ever do every year. Because kids are forced to do a hard thing and when they do the hard thing and they're successful, Man, you should see the end of the day when they're, when they get their projects back and they haven't cheated, by the way, that's a whole nother issue because each year with this AI stuff, we're catching more and more who are, yeah, yeah. Yeah. More on that later. but when they, they talk about this, they still talk about it. A couple of days ago, a kid said, I remember my partner and mentioned his partner's name and what we did. And. To this day, he's still proud of the work he did two years ago when he was in my class on that project. So we need to give them hard tasks and when they're successful, Changes the whole world, right? I mean, that's, that's what we want to do. Now, I, I get this. I'm not saying that we push them to an extreme that they can't, you know, it's a hurdle they can't jump. Right. This is cognitive load theory. I mean, the idea of how do we train a student up is we have to give them hard things to do. When you give them hard things to do, um, you have to give them something that they still can do. Right. But you push them to the limit. And sometimes they fail, but then you pick them up. I mean, this is the art of teaching, isn't it? Is to know how much to push students. But I want to say this. I don't think we're pushing our students enough. I'm hearing too much from teachers around the country that their people are lowering standards. No, we need to raise standards, raise standards for our students so that they can be successful. Now that means raise standards. I'm thinking academically. But I also think behaviorally, and I say this and it's like, well, yeah, I didn't do so good a half hour ago. With my own class. Hopefully next time I see them, I will toe the line. we need them to get out of their comfort zone. It's a hard thing to balance, I know. But over my crazy long career, I hope that I have learned the point of how to do this. And again, I'm still not doing it perfectly all these years later. So, so let's land the ship. Let's tie up this, podcast. A couple thoughts here. Don't be afraid to hold kids accountable. If you do this, if you do this, well, at the same time, tell them that they matter. You're giving them a gift that will last a lifetime. And number two, I would say caring for students and building relations often entails us holding them To a hard line, to holding them accountable. We are not just teaching stuff. I teach science and physics and biology, all the stuff. I teach stuff. So do you too. And I want my students to Get a deep appreciation for the natural world and to be in awe of what it is. But you know what? Much, much more importantly, I hope I'm teaching them how to thrive as human beings, to mold the next generation. Um, our students will one day become our doctors. Think about that. Actually, by the way, that's already happened for me because I'm old. And so some of my students are doctors and. They could be treating me, right? So, but for you young folks who are listening, you want to prepare your students to thrive as adults. And, um, I want them to become excellent at what they will do someday, but also who will, who they will become. Hey, thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, I encourage you to hit the subscribe button and please share it with your friends. And by the way, I don't know if you realize this, but I am dropping these podcasts every Monday morning. Look in your inbox or your podcast feed every Monday morning. By the way, if you want to. Subscribe. It's super easy in your podcast app. And if you want to do me a solid now, by the way, I think that's what you're supposed to say in this new, Young person lingo. The kid terminology.
00:13:34 Jon Bergmann: I probably blew it, by the way. Um, I would encourage you to give the podcast review as so I can get in front of more eyes. Well, actually, isn't it ears? I don't know. Something like that. So, go now and reach every student. Find more out at reacheverystudent.com. This is Jon Bergman.
