It’s kind of like trying on different pairs of pants until you get the one that’s the right length so you don’t have to alter it while still making sure the waist is not too small. That explains all those department store dressing rooms where we can try on different sizes looking for a comfortable fit. The point here is that kids too search for ways to self define, looking for an identity that feels good when worn. Maybe we all have gone through this phase or still are in the process of defining ourselves. I once identified as an astronaut (4th grade), NBA MVP (junior high), an architect (high school), and a pipe smoking university professor (during my college years).
Even after college, I went through four different hair style phases. For example, starting with my regular haircut. (see photos below) Many years later, at my wife's suggestion, with a long delay while the idea incubated, I finally arrived at a hair salon for my first perm. Wanting to be open minded (another way to identify), I gave it whirl. That was hair style number two, did that for many years. Then, I decided to let my hair grow out, ending up with a ponytail that was halfway down my back by the time my daughter's wedding day came to pass. She's a saint for putting up with all my shenanigans while I was growing up!
Number four, that long haired ponytail bounced on the floor when I whacked off. I was about to depart on an African walking safari with Maasai warriors in Kenya. I'd be "out in the bush" for over a month where there wouldn't be enough water to wash my hair daily. So I whacked it off and walked the safari with short hair. So much for my long haired ID. I went to dinner at my son's a month after returning from Nairobi. When he opened the door, all that came out was: "What happened to your hair?". Click HERE for photos.
Now I am on my fourth hairstyle iteration, which is best defined as in the category of short haircuts (compared to ponytails) but long in the back where it collects just a little bit at the collar collar. So even adults experiment with different ways to identify.
But let’s get back to school kids looking for an identity that fits. According to my data, about 40% of the kids find traditional roles in school: student body president, in athletics like basketball, football, track, soccer, water polo, tennis, golf. Then there are valedictorians, salutatorians, cheerleaders, flag girls, , marching band, concert band, orchestra, school scholars, scholar athletes, straight a student‘s. But what about the rest of the kids that don’t identify with any of those standardbearers?
For example: how about a kid who is seriously dyslexic and can only read at the second grade level but it’s already in the 10th grade? His grades are mostly
d's shaken over a salad of f’s. He can’t be on any of the sports teams because they require a C average in order to participate, but there are other choices beyond the traditional grid: prankster-gangster, for example.
In the old days, this role was called “rebel without a cause“.
It’s been my experience, 39 years in the classroom, that some kids miss, behave because they want to play to an audience… They’re on stage, and they play a role like prankster, and do things that they would never do solo, but for an audience, they might get a few laughs. Here’s a real story.
According to my data, the most difficult behavior difficulties are most often found coming from kids with the thickest armor. Remember, from chapter ___, many students arrive at school all armored up for protection from humiliation. The more often humiliated, the thicker the armor.
Which brings to mind... let’s call him Melvin.
One bright spring day during his design class sitting at a table with three of his buddies Melvin takes a bottle of glue and squirts copious amounts in to the pencil holder at the center of the design table, showing not only rebelliousness, but with an add on dose of defiance. Playing to his peers, Academy Award Nominated performance, Melvin calls the teacher over and says "Look teacher, who would’ve done that?“ Showing his “boys” that he could taunt a teacher into saying something that would get her reprimanded, or worse get her fired! There are video camera's everywhere. That would win the gold medal of the prankster-gangster acting, the Oscar for Best Performance in a High School Classroom, maybe it will go viral!
But instead of falling for the tempting invitation, this teacher decides to play it low key: walking to the paper towel dispenser she just begins to slowly clean up the mess without blaming it on anybody… But, she also uses this behavior as data, as information. Melvin has been displaying data all year, information daily that could help his teachers, the right kind of teacher to help Melvin turn the corner on his long history of mis-behavior… We should change is name to Oscar.
That’s just what happened yesterday when a student in Melvin’s class saw our teacher wearing Abloh designer shoes…
a student yells out “why don’t you cut that plastic tie off your shoe before you trip on it! With the whole class looking at her shoes Melvin jumps to the rescue. This is the dénouement. the moment our teacher's been waiting for all year. Melvin jumps out of his seat, and yelling: “No, no, don’t cut that off! That’s an artist's icon!“
This is the dénouement our teacher has been waiting for all year. Melvin jumps out of his seat, and shouts: “No, no, don’t cut that off! That’s an icon!“
"I know, I know!" his teacher shouts back. Take a closer look. Yep that's right, the shoe is bubble wrapped for run-way strutting! Don't throw out that bubble wrap, it's worth over $1,000.
Photo credit: Myles Kalus Anak Jihem
Furthermore, Melvin will tell you about Abloh's "friend and collaborator Takashi Murakami who featured Abloh's solo art show in his Kaikai Kiki Art Gallery in Tokyo." And there's more, but suffice it to say Melvin's encyclopedic artistic knowledge include Japan's vast world of art.
Some might ask: "Why is this Abloh connection important?" Melvin will tell you about Offwhite, but let's get to the point...
Melvin's story is an example to the most essential tool in the work with At-Risk students who are lost in educational space.
Here is a secret only the best teachers know. When a kid is projecting the image of a trouble maker, the most important thing to do is collect volumes of data. Find out everything there is to know about that kid, for in that data stream is the "hook" that will catch and turn a youngster headed in the work direction. There is in every underperforming student a clue, a key that will open the locked doors of success in school.
After all is written on white boards, after we turn out the lights and lock our classroom doors, we might remember that in addition to teaching subject area content (history, math, literature etc.) we are there to help kids grow tall and true. It might help to remember the words to the song: Looking For Space.
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