The Importance of Taking a Strength-Based Perspective

Mary Beth Hewitt

Why are some people successful with students although others have given up on them? This authorbelieves it is because they have a strength-based focus and an optimistic perspective. These educatorsmove "out of the problem and into the solution" by exhibiting eight behaviors of strength-based teachers.

Many times when I am doing a consulta-tion, staff members can tell me every-thing that a child does wrong. HeNEVER sits still. She's ALWAYS talk-ing. He NEVER does any work. When I ask whatthe child does right, I am frequently met with blankstares. Along the same vein, adults can also tell mewhat the child does not like. He's not interested inreading, rewards, et cetera. However, when I inquireas to what he/she does like, the blank stares return.Do not get me wrong, I used to sit with consultantsand expand on all the problem behaviors of my stu-dents, too. It was easy to talk about the problems thechild created because they were so obvious. Youhave probably heard that the squeaky wheel gets thegrease. Well, let's face it; you NOTICE when kids aremisbehaving. You also know what the child does notlike because he or she tells you, saying things like "Idon't care" or "this is stupid."

Although in some ways it is helpful to know whatthe child cannot do and what he does not like, focus-ing on it does little to solve the problem. We have achoice. We can stay stuck in the problem or we canlook for the solution. Talking about what the childcannot do or does not like brings us no closer to find-ing out what he can do or what he does like. Nothingis ever fixed by looking at it and bemoaning the factthat it is broken or worthless.

Imagine that you are working with an individualwho has severe physical challenges, who can neitherspeak nor move his arms or legs in a coordinatedmatter. You are sitting with a consultant and say, "Idon't know what to do with him. He NEVER doeshis work. He is ALWAYS disrupting the class by flail-ing around." Ridiculous, isn't it? I find it interestingthat when people look at individuals with extremephysical challenges, the focus shifts from what theycannot do, to what they can do. A person with cere-bral palsy may not be able to speak or coordinatehis/her hand movements but perhaps is able to trackitems with his/her eyes. A computer program is thendeveloped that allows communication via eye-move-ment tracking. The people working with individualswith these types of disabilities are forced to focus onthe client's STRENGTHS rather than lamentingabout the person's weaknesses. They also focus onthe factors that they (the staff members) can control.Furthermore, they look at how the environment canadjust to meet the needs of the client rather thanexpecting the client to adapt to the environment.Many people have found that the same strength-based approach can help educators program for stu-dents with learning, emotional, and/or behavioraldisabilities. A strength-based approach is an opti-mistic way of looking at a situation.

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Beauty Is in the Eye of theBeholder. So Is Misbehavior.

One day, I was observing in the classroom of a firstyear teacher. Before the class began, I sat down withher and she told me that her most pressing problemwas a particular student, whom she said never didany work, was constantly seeking attention, wasrude and defiant. The school psychologist had givenher an observation checklist, which she wanted tocomplete, but had not had the time. She asked if Iwould watch the boy's behavior. In the thirty min-utes I observed, he sat in his seat, did his work, andpaid attention for twenty-nine out of the thirty min-utes. Once he got out of his seat to sharpen his pen-cil, and once he verbally stood up for a fellow class-mate who was being teased, by saying, "Leave heralone. That's not nice." I viewed both of these as pos-itive actions. Sharpening his pencil allowed him tokeep working. Standing up for a classmate who wasbeing teased was an act of courage.

I also noticed the teacher's behavior. She stood at thefront of the room and read from a worksheet, whichthe students were doing at their desks. In a thirty-minute period, she gave fifteen reprimands to vari-ous members of the group for off-task behavior andgave no recognition for positive behavior. She madethree praise statements for right answers and sevenreprimands for wrong answers. Interestingly, four ofthose reprimands for wrong answers were to oneboy who was the most well behaved student.

After the students had left the room to go to anotherclass, we had a chance to talk. "So, what do youthink?" she asked. Thinking that perhaps I hadobserved the student in question on a particularlygood day, I inquired, "Was that pretty typical behav-ior for him?" "Yes," she replied, "I mean, sometimeshe can be worse, but that was pretty typical. See howawful he is? He was off task, out of his seat, and wasyelling at other students."

You may wonder how two individuals can look atthe same student and have such very different per-ceptions. While she was gathering evidence on whatthe student was doing to reinforce her belief that hewas behaving badly, I was looking at what the boywas doing to reinforce my belief that he must bedoing something right. It all has to do with what youfocus on. If you focus on the negative, the negativegrows. If you focus on the positive, the positivegrows. This is the critical difference between opti-mism and pessimism.

Why Do We Need Optimism?If you view something as broken, useless, andbeyond repair, you generally throw it away. It's notworth your efforts to fix. However, if you view it asprecious and valuable, you will go to great lengthsto salvage it. We are talking about children here.They are far too valuable to throw away. Although Iam writing about students with learning problemsas well as behavioral disorders, I like this quote fromLarry Brendtro and Arlin Ness, two leading expertsin the field of strength-based interventions:

Some might argue that optimism about anti-social youth is itself a thinking error, aPollyanna illusion that nasty kids are reallylittle cherubs. However, pessimism is sel-dom useful and often leads to feelings ofpowerlessness, frustration, and depression.In contrast, optimism feeds a sense of effica-cy and motivates coping and adaptivebehavior, even in the face of difficult odds.(1995, p. 3)

We need to assume an optimistic view in order forus to feel like we can make a difference in the livesof all of our children. Furthermore, if we want ourchildren to be resilient and optimistic, we need tomodel it.

Going back to the teacher with whom I was consult-ing, I realized that I had to shift my focus from whatshe was doing incorrectly to what she was doingcorrectly. I will admit it is a lot easier to focus onwhat she was doing incorrectly. However, I knewthat I could not help her if I only considered herweaknesses, any more than I could expect her tohelp her student if she focused on his. I had to shiftmy focus to what she was doing right:

1. She allowed a perfect stranger to come into herclassroom;

If the child persists in activities we do not like, we dubhim obstinate, stubborn, hard-boiled, perverse, unrulyor headstrong. If he persists in actions which please us,we speak of him as determined, strong-willed, resolute,brave, unflinching.

-John J. B. Morgan (2005)

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2. She asked for help;

3. For 20 out of the 30 minutes, she did not issue anyreprimands;

4. She gave some praise statements;

5. She had materials prepared.

I said, "You really care about this boy." "I do," shereplied and continued, "He is homeless and doesn'thave much stability in his life. I really want him todo well, and I'm very concerned about him. I don'tknow what to do. I feel like I'm failing him. I'm con-stantly yelling at him." I said, "It must be awful foryou to care so much and yet the only way you knowhow to get his attention is by yelling at him." "It is,"she said as she broke into tears. "I wish I knew whatelse to do." I asked, "Would you like some sugges-tions?" and she responded affirmatively. At thispoint, she was willing to listen to my observationsabout this boy and behavioral indications that hewas doing some things correctly. This was the begin-ning of a supportive relationship. Later that year, Isaw this teacher again and she was beaming. Thisboy had now become her star pupil!

Because I chose to see this teacher as being commit-ted, open-minded, caring, receptive, brave, and hon-est, I wanted to help her. I wonder if I had seen heras being negative, rigid, and domineering if I wouldhave felt the same way. Taking an optimistic viewdoes not mean you do not address problems. Itmeans that you look for what you are able to nour-ish in order to overcome those problems.

The Power of LabelsThe way you label something will make a big differ-ence in the way you approach it. To paraphrase RossGreene (1990) in The Explosive Child, your interpreta-tion will drive your intervention. This is particularlyimportant when it comes to describing students'behaviors. Labels are evidence of our interpretation.Our interpretation of the behavior can lead us toeither want to disconnect and discard or reconnectand nurture.

There is a great deal of research on the dehumaniz-ing and debilitating effects of negative labeling. As Iwas doing some research in preparation for writingthis article, I came across a study about a woman

who taught her class about how discrimination andprejudice starts (WGBH Educational Foundation,1985). The class was divided into the "blue eyes" andthe "brown eyes." The students were told that blueeyes were good and that brown eyes were inferior.In less than one day, the performance level of thestudents with brown eyes dropped. Although shewas trying to teach about racial prejudice, I couldn'thelp but make the connection to all forms of preju-dice. There is a great deal of prejudice against stu-dents with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Ithink this was most evident to me when I was teach-ing a group of 2nd graders about students with emo-tional disabilities. One young boy raised his handand asked, "Are we talking about the handicappedkids or the bad kids?"

Likewise, I hear the pessimism of adults workingwith students with behavioral disorders in com-ments such as "The apple doesn't fall far from thetree," "What do you expect? His father is in jail," "Helives in a trailer park," "He's from a broken home."These comments are not information sharing; theyare indictments. How do we expect kids to be hope-ful and persistent, if the adults in their world aremired in feelings of hopelessness?

Eight Behaviors of Strength-Based Teachers

Why are some people successful working with kidsalthough others have given up on them? I believe itis because they take an optimistic view and engagein eight behaviors that go along with a strength-based focus. As you read the examples that followeach behavior in Figure 1 (See p. 26), note your atti-tude for each. Do you notice that when something isphrased negatively, you feel depressed and defeatedwhile when the same situation is described positive-ly you feel hopeful and energized? I truly believethat all teachers start out wanting to and believingthey can make a positive difference in the lives of allof their students. However, years of being exposedto negative reports and focusing on a student'sweaknesses and misbehaviors have taken their toll.You can recapture the feeling that you can make apositive difference in the lives of ALL your studentsby focusing on the positive.

Mary Beth Hewitt, MS, holds a Certificate of AdvancedStudent (C.A.S.) in Educational Administration and is theCHOICES Coordinator for Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES inNewark, New York. She can be reached at: 131 Drumlin Court,Eisenhower Building, Newark, NY 14513-1863 or by phone:315/332-7268 or e-mail: mbhewitt@att.net

Behavior Flaw Focus vs. Strength Focus

Focus on what the student He cannot attend to a task for vs. He can attend to a task forcan do. more than 5 minutes. 5 minutes.

Make realistic appraisals. He is always out of his seat. vs. He stayed in his seat for 28 outof thirty minutes.

Avoid the use of She never follows directions. She followed eight out ofovergeneralization. ten directions.

Look for and give credit for He must have been in a good vs. He worked steadily for tenevidence of progress. Don't mood because he worked minutes.minimize or discount the longer today, but that wontpositive. last.

Positively reframe behavior. She is constantly interfering in vs. She is aware of injustice andissues that dont concern her. stands up for those she

believes are being mistreated.

Look for the silver lining He screams to get your vs. He recognizes when he needsin a students behavior and attention when something is help and lets people know it.start there. hard.

Work with the factors that you There arent enough aides to vs. I can modify the activity so thatcan control. help him when he needs a he can work in a cooperative

scribe. team and another student can take the notes.

Look at the whole picture. It is When she is asked to read aloud vs. When she is reading toas important to focus on factors in the classroom she throws younger students she is calmthat are present when the her books. and attentive to their needs.misbehavior does not occur as when it does.

Be aware of the labels that you He is stubborn and hard-boiled. vs. He is determined, resolute,use and the projections that you Hell end up in jail. What do and courageous. He hasmake. you expect? He comes from a leadership potential.

bad neighborhood.

He is a disruptive element in He has a quick wit and athe classroom. He never takes sense of humor.anything seriously.

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Figure 1. Flaw Focus vs. Strength Focus

REFERENCES

Brendtro, L., & Ness, A. (1995). Fixing flaws or building strengths?Reclaiming Children and Youth, 4(2), 2-7.

Greene, R. (1998). The explosive child. New York: HarperCollins.Morgan, J. J. B. (2005). In L. Brendtro, A. Ness, & M. Mitchell.

No disposable kids, (p. 100). Bloomington, IN: National EducationalService.

WGBH Educational Foundation. (1985). Frontline: A class divided. PBSVideo.