When Children Get Stubborn

Today I had my first official grappling with a student, over whether or not he would behave.

I did win, but it was almost a toss-up for awhile. He was amazingly stubborn! It's not unusual for kids to suddenly dig in their heels and say "No!" for no real reason, but considering it's only the first week, it's a little unexpected.

All I wanted him to do was write a paper. Just one page, as a diagnostic to show how well they write. As teachers, we're supposed to keep track of them improving, and create entire, gorgeous, and beautifully organized portfolios that we can whip out at a moment's notice, and prove the child has been given many opportunities to improve.

I need that bit of writing, just as a baseline. He could write about anything. His summer. His dog. His brother. He could make it up! I just wanted to see if he could use proper grammar, punctuation, maybe spell most words correctly.

But for some reason, he decided that he just didn't want to do it, so he just sat there. The students were given about 40 minutes, and he just sat there, after writing about 1/2 a paragraph.

I noticed his lack of words on the page, and told him that he would not be leaving my room until he had a full page, and if he was late for his next class, he would receive whatever consequence that teacher inflicted, since he had wasted his time in class.

I figured (since he still had a good 15 minutes left when I noticed he wasn't working) that he would rush to finish.

Nope.

I think he was planning to sneak out my door, because he had packed everything way before I was ready to dismiss. He sits closest to my door, and he was looking shifty and had his backpack on.

I guess he'd had teachers in the past not following through on consequences, but as every good teacher (and parent!) knows you have to follow through, or it's just a waste of time, energy, and frustration.

So as I got ready to dismiss and had all the other students turn in their work, I told him to go ahead and take his paper back out, and move to the computers, to finish up. He just stared at me, completely shocked. Then he picked up his backpack and slammed it down at the computers. (Normally, I'd address this, but you do have to pick your battles, and I am more concerned with making sure he understands that not working is not acceptable.)

He continued to sit, not writing for a few minutes.

As the next class came in, I made sure to let him know that if he continued to sit there, not writing, he would not be allowed to go to lunch on time, and would have to return to me after lunch, too, until he was finished.

The new class stared at him, which I think made him very uncomfortable, because he put his head down and started writing. Finally. Nothing like a little peer humiliation to motivate you.

He finally finished about 25 minutes after the next class started, and went to Geography, 25 minutes late. Apparently he also went in with attitude, because he was mad at me. So he gets in trouble in the next class for attitude.

So, in short, we'll just go ahead and christen this student Stubborn. I'm sure we'll be hearing about him again... considering it's only the first week, and we're already having battles.

Well, with the return of battles of wills, I feel like the school year has really started.

Ah, the joys of adolescence.