"I Won't Learn, But you can Make Me"

           Teaching isn't as easy as making a lesson plan and presenting it to a classroom of children or young adults, not that most believe this to be true but it's always good to clear up misconceptions right off the bat. Every child is different and they come with different learning needs. Simply put, you can not just teach a class and expect every student to learn the same way or to act the same way.
          Children that come from different cultures may have encountered problems with teachers in the past and may reject the idea of learning, much like Barry in this article. Barry had been deemed a problem child and the teacher decided it would be easier to just assume he couldn't learn the material and should be held back on that merit alone. The real problem had lied with the fact that teachers almost feared him, treating him as "6'1" and addicted to drugs". Essentially they saw him, at six years old mind you, as a threat to society. Now I don't know about you but I don't know of that many dangerous six year olds roaming the country.
          It comes down to just being able to deal with different situations and not trying to force anything. The teacher realized in that situation that even though he was in a position of power it didn't really matter at that junction because the student did not respect that power (Delpit). It's not about trying to get every student to like you but they have to respect you as a teacher in order for them to learn anything. Barry only learned when he felt that there was something in it for him, and that particular thing was recognition from class that not only was he the "tough" kid but he was also smart this entire time. When teaching the point in this article would be to play to the attitude of the students in question.

  http://www.teach-kids-attitude-1st.com/

         This link leads to a webpage all about the importance of a good attitude when it comes to students at a young age. Granted all students won't have a great attitude at first but by identifying these students and trying to teach to their strengths can improve that attitude rather than having them regress through negligence or even negative terms.