How a Teacher Helped a Retained Student Feel Valued
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder shares an inspiring story about a first-grade teacher who found a creative way to help a student being retained feel positive about the experience.
Key Takeaways
- Retention doesn't have to be traumatic - With the right approach, a student can repeat a grade without feeling like a failure
- Individual attention makes the difference - This teacher's thoughtful response turned a potentially negative experience into a positive one
- Teacher creativity solves problems - Sometimes the best solutions come from the classroom, not from policy
Transcript
I don't know if this is a true story.
I'm going to take it at face value, but probably many people have experienced something like this.
This is from creator Taylor Watson.
At the end of first grade, our teacher was like, okay, everybody who wants to stay behind with me, put their hands up.
And we all put our hands up because everybody loved her.
And she picked one kid who got to stay behind with her and the rest of us went to second grade and he stayed with her for another year.
And it took me until adulthood to look back and realize that that kid had just been held back.
And that was her smooth way of making it seem like a win instead of making him feel bad about it.
Isn't that incredible?
The saving of face, the grace, the smoothness that this teacher used to make sure that a student who was going to be held back didn't feel bad about it and wasn't singled out.
I think that's just a great way to build culture and to honor students and to make everybody excited about their learning.