The complete set of 198 Hints are available in paperback from the CYC-Net Press store.
Listen
The education students are observing a small junior class through the one-way mirror. The teacher is reading a passage to the class on which they will have to answer "comprehension" questions. As she is reading, the students distinguish two entirely separate patterns of behaviour: some of the pupils are hanging on every word, making frequent eye-contact with the teacher; the others are staring out of the window, doodling in their jotters or resting the heads on their arms.
When the comprehension tests are being scored the education students are informed that half the class comprises children from the surrounding neighbourhood and the other half are children from a nearby children’s home. They are asked to suggest which half is which and to predict the results of the comprehension test. They all identify the intense listeners as the children from the local suburb, and that this group would achieve the better scores.
They are 100% wrong.
As it turns out, this wasn’t a comprehension test at all, but part of a study of deprivation and its affect on learning. Something very tragic was happening in the class. The local children were listening quite adequately while they relaxed and looked around; those from the children’s home (this was in the 1950s) were not learning anything at all. Their attention to the teacher was being rewarded by frequent, reciprocated eye-contact, acknowledgement of their presence ...
What the children in care got from the language class was a pitiful level of human contact and validation for which they paid a terrible price: they learned nothing.
It’s an extreme story from another age, but when we have been on shift we might do well to look back and distinguish between those children and youth with whom we were working at appropriate personal and developmental tasks – and those whom we merely ‘stroked’ and ‘patted’ because that seemed to satisfy their need today.
And when we look back, did we know the difference?
