this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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Neurodivergence

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[alt text: a 4-panel comic by @introvertdoodles, which is titled "Not 'Appropriate'". The first panel depicts a child wearing a very creative and unique outfit, and their parent is pointing at them and saying, "You can't wear that to church." The child is replying, "Why? All my bits are covered." In the second panel, the same child and a grandparent are eating dinner at a dining room table, and the grandparent is saying, "You aren't excused until you eat everything on your plate." The child is replying, "Why? I'm full." In the third panel, the same child is holding a stuff animal, and a different parent is telling them, "You're too old to be carrying that toy around." The child is replying, "Why? The tag just says 'ages 3 plus.'" In the fourth and final panel, the same child is sitting across from a school principal in the principal's office. The principal is saying, "You can't argue with the teacher." The child is replying, "Why? He was wrong."]

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As a teacher, I'm not going to write a student up for disagreeing with me. I'm sure that there are some who do (and it would be warranted if the kid started name calling, yelling, refusing to let it go if the teacher said they wanted to look into it more after class to double-check etc), but in the years I've been working in schools, I have yet to see it happen. Here's an example of what I mean:

A few weeks ago, I was talking with the class about how I study Spanish on Duolingo to help do a job of teaching my kids. One of my students spoke up and said that Duolingo sucks and won't help you learn language. He actually said it sucks, not exaggerating there. I chose to ignore the wording and just talked about how it wouldn't be good to use it in isolation, but I also study with a flash card app for vocab, read in Spanish, listen to podcasts in Spanish, and talk with native speakers in Spanish all the time. He still disagreed with me and said so, I told him it is my specific area of professional expertise to know how language learning works, he still disagreed but we moved on.

When a student disagrees with me and I'm not sure I'm right, I try to look it up then and there or consult with a colleague if it's possible to. If not I make a note (like literally write out a note then and there, I keep sticky notes around at all times) to check on it, and I'm pretty good about getting back to them. Being able to admit you were wrong is extremely important as a teacher, and it can actually help your kids grow as people because you're modeling how you want them to behave as an adult--owning up and admitting it when you make mistakes. Seeing authority figures do it is powerful!