Back to Our Players II

A weekly commentary presenting  the basic philosophical thought of Alfred Adler, Rudolph Dreikurs, or a related scholar. This week our guest is Haim Ginott:

Haim Ginott’s Classroom Environment Theory

The teacher fosters a positive learning environment, depersonalizing behavior problems by focusing on the action, not the child; using "I-messages" instead of "you-messages". to express feelings; validating a child's emotions while attaching rules to specific objects or situations rather than to the child. The goal is to build everyone’s self-esteem - to encourage cooperation by creating a space where everyone feels accepted and valued. 

Ollie the Outsider - Community/Belonging

Ollie has just joined your team this year. He is a good fielder at first base and an asset to the team -- terrific at the plate. Early in the pre-season practices, however, you notice that the other players don't let him get cozy with them -- in fact, they seem to avoid him. When he makes a good defensive play or gets a hit, there are very few if any high fives.

It's time to check it out. Who shall I talk to? Let's try Coach Ames. So you ask, “Say, Joe, what's with the guys' attitudes toward Ollie? Do you have a clue?”

  “Well, Coach, Ollie's family just moved here from Finland. They have moved into the Maple Crest Apartments and he attends Madison Public School.” 

Oh, oh, Ollie lives on the East side of town in the government housing and attends that at-risk school in the neighborhood. He doesn't belong with the middle-class and up Falcons. Oh, I can see the signs now -- Ollie's shoes are too big for him, obviously hand-me-downs or purchased at the Goodwill Store, and his accent shows that “He's not from around here.”

What to do.

What to do is easy -- how to do it may be more difficult.  If this were a fiction story, Ollie would have hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh to beat the Broncos and win the league championship. The players would carry him off the field without caring where he lives or what he wears or where he goes to school or how he talks.

  You have held sessions on the Players' Rights and Responsibilities but something didn't take. O.K., it's time to call a special meeting -- right now.

It's better at this time to be general in your message -- you can get specific in individual cases if necessary. “Guys, we need to review one of your rights and responsibilities on this team. The fourth right from the bottom says,

“I have the right to be a member of this team"

       and the corresponding responsibility is:

“I have the responsibility to be a reliable, trust-worthy team member."

“This means that each and every one of you is a rightful, qualified member of this team -- you all belong here and there are no exceptions. Coach Ames and I have no pets or favorites and we have nobody who is being treated as being less of a person than anyone else. This means that no one is treated poorly because he or she is a different color, comes from a different neighborhood, talks differently, dresses differently, or any other kind of comparison that you might want to make.

        “I know you may be tired of the Wolf and the Pack idea but you're going to hear it all season long. This team is a Pack and each of you is a Wolf who belongs to the Pack. Every person on this team is equal in our eyes, all of our eyes -- not only the coaches."

        “I want you to keep this message in your head:

 Everyone belongs on this team simply because he or she is a member of this team. There is no other requirement – you are going to treat everyone on this team as your teammate and everyone else will treat you as their teammate.