Sunday, April 15, 2007

Guilt


Guilt is a powerful emotion. While growing up, my mom used it on me all the time to get me to do what she wanted. I used it on my own kids and I know lots of my students tell me their parents use it too. Thinking about how well guilt works in the parent-child relationship, I thought it might work in the classroom as well. I've tried it and it has worked!

Last year I had a student that I could not get to work, no matter how hard or what I did. I was constantly on the phone with his mother, no luck! Finally, ready to give up, I sat down next to him and had the following conversation:

Me: Ray, don't you love your mother?

Ray: Yea Ms. my mom is my heart.

Me: Well every day when you force me to call her, you are driving another nail into her coffin.

With this, I got up and walked away. I couldn't believe my eyes when I turned around and saw him working. Ray ended up passing math and fullfilling his math requirement for graduation. Unfortunately, he still had to go to summer school to make up a history class and still graduated late.

2 comments:

IMC Guy said...

You never know what it's going to take to "motivate" some students. Good for you for finally figuring out something to move this student forward.

Anonymous said...

Awesome motivation! I wish I could find that with my guys. With a couple, I'll just be happy if they learn their alphabet!