Coles' work needs to be read by teachers, parents, doctors, psychiatrists and politicians. As I finally did read it completely, one key aspect of his work resonated strongly with many of my own instincts about nurturing and understanding our students at school. We often fail to truly listen to the stories our children want to tell us, about who they are, and what matters most to them. Instead, we more often observe and draw conclusions based on their behavior, the things we’ve listened for, and responses to our questions.
Coles unpacks the lessons he was to learn about knowing and understanding his troubled patients. One of the simplest, yet most profound lessons, was simply that patients - and I would add students at school - want to tell their stories. But often we fail to listen, and instead begin to ask questions about the things WE want to know, not what they are trying to share. At the feet of a good teacher, Coles realized his patients were telling him the stories they thought he wanted to hear, and refraining from those things that mattered most to them. He began to realize that if he failed to listen to things other than what we were looking for, they would stop sharing the things that mattered most to them. These 'hidden' things of course include their challenges, hidden pain, life frustrations, hopes and fears. As teachers, I suspect we often miss the stories that offer an insight into who our students really are.
As I read Coles' work, I could see special significance for teachers who try to understand their students. I suspect our school students always carry round stories to which we barely listen. If these are shared, they tend to interrupt the flow of our plans for the day. Students arrive at school usually full of life and keen to tell others about the stories that matter to them. Stories about the things happening in their lives. But do we listen? If we don’t we lose so much. For in the comments they make, and the stories they try to share, we gain insight into the things that matter most to them, not to mention their fears and hopes.
In my book ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’ I say much about story, but Coles’ work has reminded me that we need to amplify the importance of storytelling in our classrooms even more. Children are born to be story tellers. If given opportunities they will share stories in class, walking into school in lines, at group tables with other students, at sport, while waiting in assemblies, or simply waiting at the school gate to go home. Some teachers might see the buzz of such conversations and stories as unimportant chatter. But if only we would listen I suspect sometimes we might just hear children speaking of the fears, phobias and hopes that impact on their lives.
Robert Coles was taught by his mentor Dr Ludwig something critical about not missing opportunities to listen.
“The people who come to see us bring their stories. They hope they tell them well enough so that we understand the truth of their lives. They hope we know how to interpret their stories correctly.”
While we might be teachers, not psychiatrists, I wonder how often we miss such stories and opportunities? Whether our students' comments and stories are happy, sad, important or just great memories, do we give them opportunities to share them? And if they do, do we actually listen?
I share a
number of stories in my book about teaching moments when I have gained great insights into my
students in the cracks of classroom and school life. One of them concerns a
‘non-talker’ I met in a Kindergarten classroom where I was teaching part-time. As
a researcher, I visited classrooms regularly in a country town to explore using
writing as a means to encourage young writers to express themselves. On one
occasion, I took over a Kindergarten classroom (5-year-olds in a primary
school). I handed out blank books and asked them: “tell me a story in these
writing books.” I stressed that they were to choose anything that was important or special to them.
One little girl finished her work and shared her story with me. She had left her seat and come to me excited and keen to read what she had written, much of it was invented spelling, but she read her work with pride. When the School Principal dropped in on this particular morning (no doubt to check on the visiting researcher), I asked the little girl to share the story with her. She did so and returned to her desk. The Principal was aghast. When she spoke to me later, she shared that the little girl “didn’t speak”, and had said nothing to her teacher in the first 8 weeks of school. In fact, she had been tagged in a “non-speakers” group so they could monitor her progress.
I also shared a story in my book about an African American student I taught in an Indianapolis Elementary school in the 1980s while a visiting Professor at Indiana University. Chanda was not my most cooperative student. She rarely completed tasks, and often didn’t even start. One morning as she dropped her bag on the desk, the contents fell out, including a bundle of paper with writing on the many sheets. I asked her what she was writing? To which she replied:
“Nothing, sir.”
I gently prodded a little more and said, "what are you writing about". She responded, "not much Sir". I had the good sense to say, “I’d love to see your writing.” She reluctantly pushed a sheet across the table and said, “It’s just music, sir, just bin writin music.”
I began to read her quite poetic and rhythmical writing, and discovered that there were a dozen or more examples like the first that I picked up. Yes, it was music! Chanda went on to share that she had been writing music at home for some time and it was one of her passions.
I could go on to share many other stories of students who would wander into my classroom in the morning before classes for a chat. I always listened and they shared many things. Some seemingly banal, others profound, some disturbing, but all offered insight into aspects of their lives and a sense of who they were as people.
One of Robert Coles’ great insights while working with adult traumatized psychiatric patients, was that all people deep down are story tellers and want to tell their stories to someone who will listen. Sadly, he found that if people do share something of our lives, but they sense others aren't interested, then they stop and withdraw into telling us what they think we wish to hear.
As an elementary school teacher and later as a university lecturer, I found that our students do want to share some of their life story if they have a relationship of trust with you. Their sharing of personal stories often happens within the classroom in the ‘cracks’ of the school day. But it also happens as we walk in lines to school sport, as they unpacked their bags at the start of the school day, or as they prepare to go home. I loved playground duty as a young teacher, because this was another less formal place where children would come up and talk about the things important to them.
As I write in ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’: “The role of teachers and schools is to nurture, inspire, form, and influence for the good the children God gives” us. Assisting their formation as people is a foundational part of education. To have any right or opportunity to do this we must create contexts where they are willing to tell their stories. And when they do, we must listen carefully so that we might just come to a deeper understanding of who they really are, and what their hopes for the future might just be.
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