Quotes from

Listen to the child criminals'

School psychologist Petri offers a solution for problem children

Jacqueline Kuijpers 
Translated from NRC, 28 August 1999

What's going on in the mind of children who do nothing at school?
Psychologist Jeroen Petri observed teachers, parents and children.
Children who are under pressure change their behavior.
'Let slow children feel they are important.'

"I will get that young criminal", said the director of a primary school to Jeroen Petri when he was there as the school psychologist to diagnose a boy with behavior problems. It are precisely this kind of labels or stigmas of 'problem children', which cause the sliding down spiral. 

In his book, Petri describes how a different way of viewing the students and their relationships with students, teachers and parents may break through that negative spiral, and so might prevent problems. 

"If you don't look to the whole, and not asks for the child's feelings, you inevitably will fall into a trap, a bow-net fom which the child has no escape", says Petri. [...]

In a lot of cases, Petri quickly recognized the dynamics in which the child again and again was mangled. 

"Little Johnny is slow. He is always the last student who has copied the blackboard. The teacher always asks: "Can I clean the blackboard, Johnny?" The teacher has little patience. Dutifully, he gives Johnny his turn, but his eyes are already elsewhere. Johnny feels this as terrible. He feels himself as being 'different'. He 'resolves' the problem by not making his homework. The parents receive letters about the bad behavior of their son. They punish him by ending his karate club - the only thing Johnny did well."

The problem children described by Petri are made problem children by the dynamics of action and reaction. Usually, the beginning is a still undiscovered learning disability. [...]

In the busy business of the day in the classroom, the teacher reacts so that the student draws in her or his horns, stops making homework, or totally chucks it. Solutions chosen by the students raise new problems for the teacher. The teacher reacts by exiling the student from the class and by informing the parents. By doing so, it is always the negative behavior that gets all attention. The students feels rejected. He might go to special classes or schools, and become a drop-out. 

"My book is not a charge against the teachers," Petri says, "I am concerned with the students. Theachers have problems with students who are different. I want to demonstrate that she or he can view the child in another way than merely as a problem child."

Five minutes

According to Petri, a more creative view of the situation may have a preventive effect. To realize this, he searches for "the smallest entrance for change". His book describes a lot of examples from practice, each telling its own story. Interviews with all concerned can give useful and enough information. In one case, a five-minute observation in the classroom was enough to see that the teacher disliked the 'problem child'. If the teacher becomes conscious of it, he is able to try to change his behavior. 

Petri frequently uses questionnaires, which he offers to the three concerned parties, teacher, student and parents. He asks questions about feelings, expectations, abilities and mutual understanding. Quite uniquely, Petri asks the student her or his opinion about the teacher. The first statement to react to is "I love my teacher", followed by "My teacher likes me".

Also the teacher has to tell if he likes the student, and the parents are asked if their child likes the teacher.

Pieces of chalk

[...] "Give attention to whatever the student is able to do well. problem children often have specific hobbies in which they achieve quite well. Give the slow student the feeling that she is important; let her go for pieces of chalk and tell the class that you only can go on if Sophie is back with the pieces of chalk."

Simple answers may solve great problems. An example is the letter to the teacher. The student writes a letter to the teacher in which he tells how he feels, what he expects from the teacher, and what the teacher may expect from him. The teacher is asked to reply the student's letter.

"For a teacher it may be shocking to read that the student is afraid of her. Such a letter can break a wall and create a new start with a long-lasting effect." [...]

A supplement

The creative new view Petri pleas for is not an alternative for a diagnosis, therapy or treatment, but a supplement to it that may create a better situation for all concerned. It might have the effect that children regain their pleasure at school. [...]

The more officials are busy with a 'problem child', the less attention there is for the feelings of the child, Petri has experienced. At his actual job, advisor to the Council for Child Protection, in the unit for the court cases, he meets young people to whom never is asked why they eventually skip school. They had already the label or stigma 'problematic case' and the school had made a two pages list of dates of school skipping.

"Use the same time to talk with the boy," Petri advises. "Many children referred to the Council for Child protection have that label of 'problematic case'. "If one would have earlier looked to these children with another view, this might have been prevented."