How to Reduce Drama, Improve Grades

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Adam Cox

There is only so much emotion to go around during the course of the school day. If all of it gets invested in grades, relatively less is available for the important stuff, like discussion, debate and sustained attention.

So, how can schools effectively reduce the drama associated with grades?

One very straightforward approach is to make grading less mysterious. This is already the case in many Math and Science courses, but continues to haunt Humanities courses where there is typically evaluation of writing and thought. I strongly advocate the distribution of sample papers as a means of reducing stress, improving clarity, and making students more accountable for the quality of their work. This could involve passing out several samples of “A” and “C” papers at the beginning of a semester, so that students can see and hear the qualitative differences in the best work vs. mediocre work. This works best when there are several examples of each level, so that students can see there is more than one road to excellence. I am not suggesting a dry rubric, but actual samples of student writing – ones that provide the kind of “melody” and reasoning that make teachers swoon! Also, the samples do not need to be related to the works currently being taught in a particular course.

To me, this is very fair to students, and helps to eliminate their fear that teachers are subjective or biased. It is also a superb teaching moment in that students are provided with an example of what excellence vs. mediocrity looks like. In any endeavor, that sort of coaching and clarity assumes we want the learner to ascend to excellence, and that their chances of doing so are better where they have a model of what excellence looks like! We learn to do virtually everything better where an example is provided – why not do this more often in school?

Please consider providing this type of guide for your own students – and watch how much more quickly they seem to learn. School should test the acquisition of knowledge, but I see little value in assessing whether students can correctly imagine what high quality work looks like to a particular teacher.

Can Nature Really Cure ADHD

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Adam Cox

There is a pernicious myth that being in nature can miraculously cure those affected by ADHD, or more specifically, executive dysfunction. There is something wholesome and positive about this notion. It is based on the belief that the main reason kids have attention deficits is that their lives have become harried and void of time spent in the woods, or at the shore. There seems to be a thread of truth in this perspective, but the severity and prevalence of executive dysfunction is simply too great to believe that the only cause is an overly urban lifestyle. By extension, it’s highly unlikely that nature alone will cure ADHD.

I find it extremely uncomfortable to make this argument because I am a staunch defender of time spent in deep nature. I believe such experiences are important for the soul. For as long as I have been able to read Thoreau, I’ve been a steadfast believer that nature always makes life better. That being said, when a society examines how to best address a behavioral problem, we need a perspective that gets beyond romanticizing to consider the science of a disorder.

We might agree that many young people affected by executive dysfunction would be less symptomatic if they had regular contact with deep nature. But what if that contact is not readily available? We need other options, and I don’t mean only medicine. What’s really important is a culture-wide conversation about attention. Many young people would be greatly relieved by this sort of dialogue. It bring the challenge of attention into the light, and helps us shift from a culture of complaint to one of constructive problem-solving. I’d be thrilled if these conversations could take place in the woods, or along the beach!

“Monstrous Children”

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Adam Cox

Modern children face an unfortunate fact. For all the love and attention we lavish on them, hardly a soul takes them seriously. Further, despite abundant indulgence and protection provided to middle-class children, in particular, few are given anything significant to do, because few adults believe there is very much they can do. Accordingly, their serious thoughts on matters of daily consequence are rarely invited. I suspect that the suggestion that this is a problem may strike some as absurd. Yet the loud repercussions of this state of affairs are considerable, and we should address how this imbalance now colors the temperament of childhood. Usually, our society focuses intensely on the effect, while paying less attention to the cause of children’s behavior. So there is ample discussion of the most pressing problems: poor attitude, impulsive self-gratification, aggression, and elements of depression. It is not my intention to suggest that such syndromes don’t exist, because they do, hindering the harmony to which most families and classrooms aspire.

The above is an excerpt from my recently published essay, On Monstrous Children.

I wanted to share this in relation to an interesting story from Canada about a restaurant offering patrons a discount for well behaved children! Some might object to this policy on the grounds that it unfairly penalizes parents of children with behavioral disabilities. True. But in my view, the more significant issue is to understand why children misbehave in the first place – much of the reason has to do with being given little or no respect. We could have a massive and collective effect on child behavior if we changed the way we talk to kids. Our speech is the most important indicator of respect, and too often we talk to kids like they are second class citizens.

Biggest Myth About ADHD

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Adam Cox

In a world where ADHD is everywhere, many of us have accepted a short attention span, distractibility, and restlessness as the new norm. We may worry about younger generations, but the worry is mostly misplaced. Young people are carving the world in their own image. Twenty years from now, I suspect few will be talking about ADHD as a pressing concern. For the time being, however, concern abounds. What should we do about all these kids who require medication to get through the school day? What should we think about kids who can’t tolerate boredom; who need constant stimulation?

The first thing to realize is that attention doesn’t entirely live in your brain. That’s the biggest myth about ADHD. Attention lives in the spaces between us. It is far more social than most of us realize. This is precisely why highly inattentive kids can pay attention in some contexts, but not others. If we want to command the attention and focus of children, we have to strategically manage the social space between us and them. This means managing the tone and tempo of interaction. On an intuitive level, you already know this. Think about the last time you had to listen to a speaker that was tone-deaf, who seemed oblivious to the audience. In my professional development programs for teacher, I emphasize the management of tone and tempo because it is the critical fist step in working with 21st century kids. You have to know how to alter the volume, pitch, and pace of your speech, so you effectively connect with kids. It also helps to be aware of non-verbal communication like body language and physical proximity. These critical layers of communication set the table for learning – and they are the tools of master teachers!. You can be a master of content, but until you address core communication signals, attention will drift.

The Truth Won’t Be Suppressed

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Adam Cox

It was more than a decade ago that I began writing and speaking about the social and emotional challenges of boys. Believe it or not, a decade ago this was still a controversial position to take. After I wrote Boys of Few Words, some emailed me to assert there were no real differences between genders. They said no science existed to support such differences, and that claiming such a difference was only another way to confer privilege on boys. In one of its most ludicrous policy statements, the American Psychological association supported this contention. Like various institutes and researchers committed to a philosophy of sameness, they relied upon studies examining particular psychological attributes, but appeared to largely ignore social achievement data – and common sense.

Now we seem to be back for round two of this circus. In yesterday’s New York Times, David Leonhardt provides a straight-forward overview of the data – and it isn’t pretty. Clearly, boys are under-performing, and the longer term consequences are scary. To add to what Leonhardt has written, kindergarten teachers have long recognized the link between social skills and reading skills. Those kids who are better readers, also do better in connecting with others. Phonological awareness is a critical link. This is the ability to hear the phonemes that make up words. There are 44 phonemes that make up all the words in the English language; the sooner you commit those word sounds to memory, and can relate them to their written equivalent – the sooner you learn to read. And, the sooner you learn to connect. This is also why auditory processing skills are often the critical difference when it comes to boys’ social and emotional delays. These differences are well established – and virtually everyone who actually works with boys will acknowledge this.

While we focus incessantly on ADHD, much needs to be said about the lack of language skills among boys. The bottom line is that kids who are more effective in thinking with language (rather than impulses and reaction) do a better job of navigating social hurdles.

There are too many Boys of few Words! The most fundamental and useful strategy we can adopt to helping boys is to provide more opportunity to learn and experiment with language. This means schools that provide ample time for supervised interaction. The school day should be more collaborative than hierarchical – there is no other way to get at the skill development that really matters.

Communicating with Kids on Monday

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Adam Cox

Today is Monday, the best day of the week to communicate with your adolescent son or daughter about priorities. An effective parent-coach spends more time bringing priorities into focus, and explaining the path for achieving those priorities, than issuing reprimands or expressing disappointment. I think it’s both natural and helpful to orient kids to important ideas on Monday morning. It’s best to do this without drama or chaos. Monday’s can be hectic for sure, but overall, confidence and emotional security are improved when people are on the same page. You don’t have to list every single thing a child should be doing, but it is helpful to at least touch upon those things that will be important to have achieved by week’s end.

ideas on youth

Rhyme, Reason and Purpose in Childhood & Adolescence

Executive Functions