Affective Needs Teacher
This year I accepted a job as an
affective needs teacher. (Wait while I draw a deep breath)
This
has not been a successful teaching year. I read a book called “Angry Young Men”
by Aaron Kipnis, PhD., and I kind of understand why I haven’t been
successful.
There
are many reasons and while I would like to say that none of them are because of
me, it just wouldn’t be true. I am not a male.
I am not a lot of things, but an affective needs teacher must be in
touch with who and what kind of person you really are and not what you would
like to be. The core beliefs that are
needed are cookie cutter, but they must be your own without any apologies. The moral fiber has to be intact in your soul
and confident in yourself. I am a white woman.
I thought the main reason behind
this was because these kids were street smart and could smell bull poopy and
mile off. This is true. However, I am
coming off a bad year and I am trying to get my confidence back. These kids on the other had have been through
a lot and based on what I read in this book. The root cause is both nature and nurture. The children have been born to young parents
and were either preemies and/or had some form of fetal alcohol syndrome. Since then, they have been part of an abusive
home life, been in foster homes, and either don’t have a father figure or have
an abusive father figure at home.
As I read the book, I realized that
all of my students have experienced all of the items a din some ways are on the
seven pathways that lead to jail. The
sad part is that I am part of the pathway that leads to prison, not jail, not
juvenile hall, and not an institution, prison. Dr. Kipnis is one of these angry
young men. However, he stats that he has
had the help that he recommends in this book for boys who are on their way to
become an angry young man. What is
really sad is that there is not one type, except to say is that they they are
all boys.
I read this book as part of a
freelancing gig I accepted. I will be
reading it over again because I skimmed over most of it because of my time
limit. This helped me to understand why
this has been and unmitigated mess. I highly recommend this book to anyone who
works with boys, especially boys who are at risk.
