Teaching “Those Kids”

3 Easy Signs to Identify “Those Kids” in a Deficit Mindset Culture.

Who are “those kids”? They are the love interest of a deficit mindset culture. When you see a child and are able to only see negative attributes about them, or are unable to see them beyond stereotype of bias. You are teaching or leading in deficit mindset culture. “Those kids” are the single most targeted group of students in a deficit mindset culture. So who are “those kids” and who are the teachers and principals leading them.

1.     Sign Number 1: Walk through your in-school suspension room (ISS), and review your out of school suspension data. I guarantee you that you will see patterns and trends. When you walk through your ISS room on different days, different months and different times and see the same demographics. You’ve just found “those kids”. Now that you know who they are build a culture that includes them and not excludes them.

2.     Sign Number 2: Walk through your special education classrooms, especially classrooms that are for children that have a label of emotionally disturbed (ED). What do you see? You don’t have to tell me, I already know. If your school reflects current research, you saw more African-American boys than any other demographic subset. African-American boys are a particular favorite of a deficit mindset culture. Knowledge is power, liberate them. There is a national epidemic of the over-identification of African-American boys as emotionally disturbed. Guess what, not all of them are ED, they just need a better school cultural fit. So build it. You’re the teacher/leader right?

3.     Sign Number 3: Now that you are beginning to understand and recognize who “Those kids” are, take a stroll through your advanced placement and gifted and talented classrooms. What do you see? Spoiler alert, according to research you are probably seeing, “our kids”. “Our kids” are the protected, celebrated and most successful students on a campus, they fit in. “Our kids” are the accepted and valued group of kids and people talk about them with joy and pride. “Those kids” are probably absent from gifted and talented and advanced placement rooms or are present in low numbers. You can create a culture in which, “those kids” become “our kids”, if you choose to.

“Those kids” are the detached one that are separated from the “our kids” language. They are the outliers of traditional, mainstream America. “Those kids” are the kids that schools are having the most difficulty reaching and are significantly impacting accountability scores.  They are stereotyped as coming from a culture that traditional systems don’t understand. We can reach them. You can teach them. Find them and make them “your” kid and not “that” kid.

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