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Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

theatlantic.com

11–20 of 227 posts

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#11

As a youth, I was only able to sit still by focusing on sitting still. If I was paying attention to the teacher, I was fidgeting, and would be told to pay attention...

Same here, I was constantly told to pay attention or my progress reports would say, "does well but does not pay attention".

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#12
At least one of my three boys would have an incredibly hard time with this. He's definitely "aspie" in a lot of respects.

The decision to home educate our 4 children is hands down the best decision we've ever made. Highly recommend it, if you are able to pull it off logistically. Very rewarding experience so far.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#13
post #3

Yeah , stop trying to teach kids discipline, especially when there is none at home ...

And yet if you work in an office the Health and Safety advice is to change position frequently and take regular breaks to standup, stretch and walk around. Sitting still for an hour is unpleasant and unhealthy.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#14
I felt like they were describing me that whole time. I was diagnosed with learning disabilities and told to sit still countless times. Thankfully some teachers realized keeping me in extra circular activities would offset my energy but when I moved from that school the situation changed.

The frustrating part for teachers was that I typically scored higher on exams than my peers, including standardized tests. They then saw my scores and consistently lectured me about how if I just _applied_ myself I'd be doing so much better.

I always treated exams as a challenge I sit here for 1, 2 hours at a time and try and score as high as possible.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They gave me silly putty to harness my fidgeting. I soon discovered silly putty can be made into a bouncy ball, that I could use to distract everyone.

My son's classroom has employed smaller versions of exercise balls to keep some of the kids focused (including my own). It's interesting to observe. The kids are fidgety and restless while sitting, but when you sit them on one of these the subconscious motor control going on seems to quell the foreground restlessness.

Maybe it's a metabolism thing? If they're used to burning calories a a certain rate, homeostasis will cause their bodies to seek to maintain that rate. Fidgeting burns a lot of calories. Maybe tensing up core muscles for balance fills that need?

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#16
One of the guiding objectives of the current cohort of education thought leaders is to focus on girls. So, we're focusing on girls. Boys, time for your pills.

My personal goal is to figure out how to make enough money to keep my children out of the insanity of public schools.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#18

i remember i always got shitty 'citizenship' grades because i wanted to talk to my classmates all the time. talking - what a terrible thing for a child to do.

Talking to your classmates "all the time" has very clear potential to be highly disruptive to the teacher and other students' ability to learn. Significantly different from just fidgeting.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#19

At least one of my three boys would have an incredibly hard time with this. He's definitely "aspie" in a lot of respects. The decision to home educate our 4 children is hands down the best decision we've ever made. Highly recommend it, if you are able to pull it off logistically. Very rewarding experience so far.

Any tips on getting started? It sounds interesting but I wouldn't know where to start.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#20
Reading this article, for me, is just a reminder of what an awesome effect a really good teacher can have... In this teacher's writing I see a lot of positive qualities reflected from some of the teachers that made a huge impact on my life and disposition. In the end I suspect that - just having a teacher that is even willing to think or write about this - has much more of an impact than any rote following of procedural formula about "how to teach boys".
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