Mitch’s Path Back to School
In a vignette example focusing on Mastery, we revisit what happened after Mitch was suspended from school for threatening the student teacher. Rather than place him in a school for kids with behavior problems, the school’s dean of students did a careful IEBR assessment of why Mitch acted out and discovered clear issues that Mitch needed to remediate. He assured Mitch’s willingness to engage with a tutor because mastery of specific academic competencies was required for his return to school. Working privately with a tutor limited Mitch’s concerns about humiliation as he gained mastery.
Make A MESS – Mastery – Mitch and the Dean
After sitting at home for three days following the incident with the student teacher, Mitch was feeling bored, frustrated, and more than a little anxious. He did not want to go to the Alternative School. In his mind, that would feel like being sent to prison. Mitch wondered if the abbreviation for Alternative School Student was really unintentional. It was with this set of thoughts and emotions that Mitch responded to the Dean’s call to come talk in his office. .
“I’m not going to that stupid school,” Mitch said, as the Dean looked across his desk at his defiant young charge.
“I agree,” the Dean said.
“Huh?” Mitch had not expected this response.
“I agree that you should not go there. A friend of mine told me you didn’t belong there,” the Dean said.
“I don’t understand,” Mitch said, totally confused. He was dreading this meeting because he assumed he was headed for the Alternative School. In Mitch’s mind, ‘Alternative’ was a euphemism for ‘jail’, because that was the school for the ‘bad kids’ with its locked doors and strict rules.
“I didn’t know you had friends in high places, Mitch,” the Dean said.
“I do?” Mitch answered, not quite sure what to say.
“Well, your old friend Coach Carson told me to sit down and have a careful chat with you before I make any big decisions,” Dean said.
“Coach Carson. I didn’t know he was my friend. He was always so tough on me,” Mitch recalled.
“Tough, but fair?” the Dean asked.
“Yeah. He was fair. He was hard on everyone. But me especially,” Mitch laughed.
“We need to talk about what happened in your math class last week and make a plan,” the Dean said.
“What sort of plan?” Mitch asked.
“Well, that’s kind of up to you. Do you want to come back to school here?” the Dean asked.
“Yeah. My friends want to know why I’m not here (in school),” Mitch answered.
“But do you really want to come back to school?” he asked again.
“Yeah. It’s boring at home and it’s embarrassing. No it’s worse than that. It’s … it’s …”
“Is the word you are after, ‘humiliating’?” asked the Dean.
“Yeah. It sure is. It’s humiliating,” Mitch said.
“Do you know what the word ‘humiliating ‘ means, Mitch?” the Dean asked.
“It’s something worse than embarrassing. It’s when someone makes you look bad in front of your friends,” Mitch said.
“Did humiliation have anything to do with your incident with your math teacher?
“Well, she was trying to make me look bad in front of everyone. So, yeah, it had a lot to do with what happened,” Mitch agreed.
“Do you think she was trying to humiliate you?” the Dean asked.
“Well, not just me. But I was the one she picked on,” Mitch said.
“Tell me again how she tried to humiliate you,” the Dean asked.
“She wanted me to go to the board to do a problem she knew I’d screw up. She was going to make me look like a fool,” Mitch explained.
“Coach told me that, ‘if Mitch causes any trouble, it probably has something to do with not wanting to feel humiliated’,” the Dean said.
“I’ll be sure to thank him,” Mitch said, sarcastically.
“Actually, you should,” the Dean said. “I was all set to get you moved over to the Alternative School.”
“So what does this mean?” Mitch asked.
“It sounds to me like, if you could have done the math problem that day, then going to the board would not have felt humiliating,” the Dean wondered.
“Yeah, I guess so. I don’t mind going one-on-one with somebody I know I can beat,” Mitch said, referring to rec time basketball.
“Speaking of one-on-one, I’m going to give you a one-on-one tutor,” the Dean said.
“Why?” Mitch asked.
“Because if you want to come back to school, you have to prove to me that you really want to and that you won’t have another incident like that one,” the Dean said.
“I won’t. I promise. No way will I ever do something like that again,” Mitch said.
“Well, what you did was very serious. Can you imagine what would happen if you did that to a boss or someone out in the real world?” the Dean asked.
“Yeah. I’d be in court instead of your office,” Mitch recognized.
“You need to earn the right to come back to school. But you also need to come back to school, prepared to be successful,” the Dean said.
“What do you mean?” Mitch asked.
“You were worried about being humiliated in front of everyone. But if you knew as much math as everyone, you wouldn’t be worried if the teacher called on you,” the Dean explained.
“I get it. But I suck at math,” Mitch admitted.
“When you are behind and don’t understand what the class is doing, it’s easy to think that,” the Dean said.
“But I’m behind in everything,” Mitch said.
“Yeah. It’s kind of like being totally out of shape,” the Dean explained. “That’s why I’m giving you a tutor. Like a personal trainer to work you back into shape for school. Plus, he’s someone you’ll like. A math major and …”
“A math major?” Mitch gave a contemptuous face.
“And he is one of the best closers in the Big Ten,” the Dean said. “He’s …
“Oh, I know who he is,” Mitch said. “I follow the team. Why would he want to tutor me?”
“All athletes need jobs. Guess he figures earning money tutoring math is easier than mowing soccer fields in the hot sun,” the Dean said.
“He’s never tutored me. He may want the sun instead,” Mitch said.
“Guess that’s up to you,” the Dean said. “Anyway, here’s the deal. You need to be completely caught up in math in order to come back to school.”
“What do you mean, ‘all caught up’?” Mitch asked.
‘That means, that you need to start over with Algebra and learn everything right. And to show you have learned the math, you need to get 90% correct on each chapter test,” the Dean explained.
“90%? That’s what ‘A’ students get. No way I’m going to get a ‘90’ on a test,” Mitch complained.
“If you really know the material, well enough to do the problems, you’ll get 90% on the tests. If not, you’ll study what you missed and take the test again,” the Dean said.
“I can take a test over?” Mitch asked.
“Yeah. When you are ready to take the test, you tell your tutor. If you don’t get a 90%, then the two of you focus on learning the stuff you got wrong. Then, you take the test again,” the Dean said. “It’s not about a grade. You have to show you have mastered the material.”
“So, tell me again what I need to do to come back to school?” Mitch asked.
“Your Algebra class has covered ten chapters of the book so far this year. You need to get 90% correct on every chapter your class has covered, plus one,” the Dean said. “I expect you to be caught up and slightly ahead when you return. Then you won’t worry about looking bad in that class.”
“And if I don’t get all this work done?” Mitch asked.
“Guess you’ll be stuck sitting at home watching Dr. Phil cure people,” the Dean said.
“That’s not funny,” Mitch responded, obviously worried he would not be able to learn this much math.
“Don’t worry Mitch. You’ve got the best closer in the Big Ten on your team,” the Dean reminded him.
ANALYSIS
The Dean was making A MESS of Mitch. Once he assessed the basis for Mitch’s behavior with the student teacher, he recognized that it had been defensive, and an effort to avoid humiliation. That was quite different from the kid who exploited others for personal gain and didn’t care. The Dean’s assessment was confirmed by Coach Carson, who had long recognized that Mitch’s (mis)behaviors were usually defensive face saving efforts. If his assessments were correct, then gaining competence in Math would leave Mitch feeling secure and non-defensive.
By talking to the people familiar with Mitch, including Mitch’s mother, the Dean had learned that if Mitch wasn’t good at something, he avoided it and made excuses. Consequently, Mitch failed to engage with the difficult process required for gaining mastery. And it was lack of mastery that left him vulnerable in Math, school in general, and on the ball field. He also knew that Mitch engaged with confidence when he believed in his ability to outplay or outperform his competition. Watching him as he dominated weaker opponents on the playground basketball court made that abundantly clear. With that in mind, the Dean focused on putting Mitch in a position to succeed in school.
He reasoned that if Mitch were competent in Algebra, the incident with the student teacher would not have occurred. Therefore, he focused on helping Mitch master the Algebra he had failed to learn, which left him behind, lost, and defensive. Did you notice how the dean shifted the definition of success from grades to mastery? Previously, Mitch viewed tests as threatening and judgmental; something he avoided at all costs. The dean reframed testing as a means for assessing understanding. If he missed a problem on the test, then that told him what he still needed to master.
The dean knew that when kids don’t master math concepts before moving on, their ability to learn new material is compromised. They get frustrated, discouraged, and often give up. He knew that the only way to be successful at math was to learn a concept thoroughly before moving on, because math concepts build upon the foundation of what preceded them. Division depends upon multiplication, which depends upon addition.
Keeping Mitch engaged and helping tolerate the inevitable frustration (self-soothing) will be a formidable task for the tutor. The dean created a structure that gave Mitch a good chance at success. First, he recognized that Mitch desperately wanted to return to school and friends and not go to the Alternative School. He clearly defined what Mitch had to accomplish (or master) in order to return. There would be no ambiguity or confusion. The publisher of the Algebra textbook provided chapter tests and they would serve to assess mastery. By providing scheduled tutoring Mitch had a daily structure that would help him stay engaged. By making it a private, one-on-one process with the tutor, the dean also removed the threat of comparisons and public humiliation that led to Mitch’s avoidance (of engagement). Consequently, the self-soothing Mitch needed to develop was focused on learning to tolerate the frustration entailed with working problems, failing, analyzing mistakes and reengaging inherent in learning math.
With the help of the tutor, Mitch will have the chance to learn how to manage seemingly overwhelming challenges. Math is a good place to do this work. It is clearly definable and measurable. Mitch will learn that if he breaks big things down into smaller goals, it is doable. With a tutor he already idolizes, he will be willing to listen to examples of how it is necessary to break big goals, like pitching effectively, down into discrete skills that need to be mastered. Becoming effective as a closer starts with hitting a target reliably with a fastball, 90% of the time.