HANDLING FAILING STUDENTS

GINALYN D. SOTTO

At the start of the school year, I was tasked to handle students who really need extra attention and academic assistance. It was indeed a challenge on my part how I would handle them. As an adviser, a major concern was how I could show them the motherly love I have for them and eventually make them realize the value of education.

Having the right intentions, the challenge to hurdle lies on making sure that I will be having the right and effective interventions. Upon reading the book - Children Who Fail at School But Succeed at Life, I came to realize that it doesn’t always follow that those who do well in school are smart, while those who struggle in school are not. I have also thought of people who failed in school when they were younger but ended up succeeding later in life.

To ascertain the success of students, including those who seem unlikely to make it, there are different ways on how to handle these students. Let me share a few of them:

1. Make them feel that they belong and that they have something important to contribute.

2. Help them to see challenges in a new light.

3. Listen and show interest in their concerns.

4. Show kindness— give students the message that they can make a difference in creating a school where kindness is practiced

5. Reward struggles as well as achievements.

6. Be a talent scout, remember the theory of multiple intellences. Gardner identified eight different areas of intellectual capacity— spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, linguistic, and logicalmathematical.

As an educator let us not forget that we, everyone of us, are born unique. These kind of students who appear to be without promise may just be gifted in other areas. Let us help them in developing these skills further. Today it might be hard to do this and tomorrow may even pose challenges that are harder still, but the day after tomorrow may bring sunshine and the proverbial silver lining as the clouds of doubt are swept away by teachers’sheer determination and faith in what Jose Rizal said— that giftedness is as cosmopolitan as the air we breathe. No one is exempt from the promise and fulfilment of success.

— oOo—

The author is Teacher III at Pulung Santol National High School