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.