Magic Valley NLP

Presupposition: There are no failures in communication, only outcomes

Events are real, however names have been changed. 

Today I was working with a group of 11 teenagers, five girls and six boys.  We were exploring the character traits of two characters in a book and I had set up 6 paragraphs for each character. I divided the groups into boys and girls and told them to organize however they wanted, then write the traits they discovered in their reading on the board. 

It was interesting to watch. The girls immediately counted the paragraphs, quickly noted there were six boys and only five girls. Each volunteered quickly to take one, then assessed the boys, noted that there were six boys so each of them could have a paragraph.  They saw that the boys had an unfair advantage with one more boy and quickly moved to rectify the situation. asking me, as the teacher and a girl, to take one also so it would be even.  Being even and fair is important to teenagers.   I quickly agreed.

The boys were an entirely different story.  They discussed whether to divide, how to divide and who would take what.   As I watched the boys continued to argue while the girls read their paragraphs, paused to think out a good answer, then started writing their answers on the board. 

After a bit the boys realized that the girls were almost done and they quickly got a paragraph and  started looking haphazardly for answers, some asking the teacher to point the answer out to speed up the process. 

This reminded me of an article I had recently read in the NEA Daily Bell, and taken from the New York Times.  (1/1/08, A-9 Finder)  The article reported that many tutors and college counselors have begun charging up to $100 an hour or more to help teen school boys learn to organize their schoolwork and manage their time in preparation for future college.  Girls as a whole are out-performing boys in both high school and college.    Education experts have begun to ask, “Is there a crisis in the education of boys?”  The Times noted the growing trend in education to gender-specific tutoring and single-sex schools.  They also sited more male role models being sought for in the school environment as well as a quest for new teaching techniques.  Tutors who develop and offer the boy-specific programs say that organizational skills are their main focus because boys have a more difficult time getting organized and multi tasking the ways girls do naturally.

I had just unwittingly proven the article to be correct and enjoyed watching the process as countless middle school teachers do on a daily basis.  It again reminded me of my NLP skills and the NLP presupposition there are no failures in communication, only outcomes.  The boys had not failed, but they had communicated. Their communication to me was that they lacked organizational skills and needed a hand. 

As I learned my NLP skills we spent a lot of time learning organizational skills with such programs as the TOTE model and Disney Strategy.  To me they seem obvious.  Now I understand why the men in the class were especially excited.  These organization skills are tools they could use daily to help themselves organize and be more productive and successful.  I am excited to be able to incorporate those skills and programs into my teaching.  They are a gift to my students to be more organized and successful as they apply these skills to their school, future careers and to life.

© by Debrah Roundy 2008

Side Note

I heard this recently in my reading on brains and their functions.  Then a friend sent it and I thought it bears sharing.  If you have teenagers who keep whining "WHy can't I ---."  here is your answer and after you tell them this, tell them that they will understand when the frontal brain is completely developed and at that time they will no longer need to ask why because they will know. 

 Neurology of why teens neglect to consider consequences: Neural connections in frontal brain areas are not developed, so output of sensory/motor processing is their only tool. Teens act w/out input from brain frontal areas. This keeps them in concrete experiences w/out regard to consequences, overall plans, and values. Teens are like a car that has the accelerator intact but no brakes. (from a class w Fred Travis, PhD)

Brain neurons complete differentiation at around age 21, then everything is on-line.

Little  wonder the age of responsibility (adult) is considered at around 21 (minimum voting age, some state minimum age drinking laws, etc).