After reading and pondering the debate about teens lacking adult reasoning capacity, yet being held to adult consequences, what do you think this means for you as a teacher?
As a teacher I am a role model. Part of my responsibility is to help my students achieve the skills needed to increase their reasoning capacity. I need to provide opportunities for my students to practice their reasoning skills. Encouraging them to think through their actions and find out their motivations helps them develop these skills. Instead of just handing out consequences it is more helpful to have them reason out why the consequence is in effect and what behaviors led them to receiving that consequence. Helping them formulate a plan to avoid those behaviors in the future enables them to use those reasoning skills while being guided instead of just relying on them to figure it out on their own. Remembering they lack adult reasoning capacity can help me take a step back and not take things personally. It will allow me to better assess their motivations which in turn can guide my responses.
Stepping back, not taking things personally, accessing their motivations from observations then responding. Pass that on to all you know.
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