Introduction
In my experience, a child's lack of positive performance both in class and on the state tests often has little to do with intelligence or cognitive capability and more to do with an emotional bulwark built from either a singular or ongoing traumatic incident.
For several years now, I have been contemplating the idea of a practical, common sense, street-smart type of intelligence and its role in the academic setting. The idea came to me while watching a middle school basketball game. Two of the boys were in my class. Both boys were excellent basketball players, especially for their age. One of them I am convinced will continue playing basketball in college and even possibly progress to the NBA; I do not hold out so much hope for the second boy. Why, you ask? I asked myself the same question. Both boys had a stable home, with an active and supportive mother and father still married and in the home. I saw both sets of parents on a very regular basis. The first boy was a straight A student; his parents would not have it any other way. At the end of every year of school, the second boy barely passed. His parents did not seem to know how to help him; they were providing him with the best support they knew how to provide. Yet, on the basketball court, the boys were evenly matched. I came to the conclusion that the first boy had developed both an academic and a practical intelligence while the second boy had only developed a practical intelligence. When the second boy played basketball, I could almost 'see' the wheels in his brain turning; he thought his way through the game. The decisions he made on the court convinced me positive cerebral activity was occurring. Yet, somehow, he could not translate that thinking into the classroom. I did some research and found that a Yale Professor, Robert Sternberg, and some of his collegues had conducted some extensive research during the 1980s and 90s into the idea of a practical intelligence.
As I am chewing over the research by Sternberg and associates, I meet a third young man. This young man is very large so I try to recruit him to the football team (I am the athletic director). He resists me at every turn. I try to get to know him only to learn he is a reticent young man who does not want any unnecessary attention focused upon him. I learned he was a bowler (actually a very good one as he has won the state bowling title for his age). As much as I tried to pull this young man out of his silence, my efforts were in vain. During his seventh grade year, this young man was in my tribe (You will learn more about tribes later in this unit). The community atmosphere of our tribe began to work wonders on this young man. By wonders, I mean, he actually laughed and began to participate, even though somewhat reluctantly, in our tribe activities. During his eighth grade year, he was in my class for reluctant readers. It did not surprise me he did not pass the state test, but I knew there was something in there; meaning, he was smart, but something was causing this young man to 'clam up'. He slowly began to open up to me. I learned his father had abruptly left him and his mom. This forced him and his mom to move in with his grandparents. In conversations with his grandmother and mother, I was informed I was the only teacher he felt comfortable talking with. This revelation was a surprise to me since our conversations were largely one-sided with his responses coming in short, simple sentences. This situation got me to thinking about emotional upheavals and in what manner the consequences affected a child's academic development. This third young man was 'stuck', mentally and emotionally; the trauma of his father leaving was so incapacitating to him, that he had stopped growing, academically and socially.
Through this unit, I want to afford my students the opportunity to address and begin to deal in a safe and secure setting with whatever emotional upheaval or trauma has befallen them, while also allowing the students the emotional freedom to investigate who they truly are and who they want to be. This will all be in an effort to begin filling in the academic gaps that have occurred during their 'stasis' period.
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