How to Intervene without Making it Worse by Rosalind Wiseman
E U R O P E A N L E A G U E F O R M I D D L E L E V E L E D U C A T I O N
How to Intervene without Making it Worse by Rosalind Wiseman
The subject I chose for this article is a topic I have struggled with myself : When you see a young person mistreated by their peers , how do you intervene without making things worse for the target ?
What ’ s great about this question is it shows how the educator realizes that the way they interact with the group impacts the target ’ s ability to advocate ( or not ) for themselves .
Here ’ s what I believe we always need to keep in mind : No matter what we teach , our credibility and effectiveness as educators is based on authentic , meaningful , respectful engagement with each and every student . It ’ s easy to say , but in practice , it can be difficult to accomplish .
Let ’ s admit that some of our students can be personally very challenging . For example , have you had a student that got on your last nerve because they were really good at being mean and negative to other students but refused to take ownership for their actions ? Have you ever been frustrated with a young person because they kept going back to the same kids who treated them like dirt or covered up for them ?
We are going to have feelings about the cruel social dynamics that can occur between our students . And those feelings are a gift and a liability . A gift when they fuel our passion to uphold our students ’ dignity and motivate us to self-reflect about our own effectiveness . Or , a liability if our emotions blind us from seeing how we may make the problem worse . We have a responsibility to intervene appropriately and effectively . But , specifically , how do we do that ?
We have to dig deep and get honest with ourselves . How did we grow up learning to speak truth to power ? How did we learn to intervene in a conflict between people ? Almost all of us learned to respond to aggression and anger in three ways : avoid , attack or acquiesce . These three responses have the potential to control our relationships in every aspect of our lives including family , friends , intimate partners and work colleagues .
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