What Kids Need

Here’s what they need:

• empathic attunement

• a sense of belonging

• someone to look up to

That’s according to Dr. William Ketterer, who trains teachers to work with students other teachers have given up on.

Like students who throw chairs around the classroom.

Or hurt other students and teachers.

Or are so stressed and traumatized that they can barely function.

Who can deal with students like these?

Erica Young can. She is a special educator in a public school therapeutic classroom who works with these kinds of students — these developmentally needy and remarkably responsive and resourceful human beings. She’s wise, she’s incredibly good at what she does, and she’s absolutely certain that all teachers can work with difficult students — if they learn the theory underlying emotional and relational development and have the robust support required to give students what they need.

You can hear Erica in the latest episode of The Teachers’ Lounge with Betsy Burris. In this episode, I don’t tell the story. Erica does. A few of them. Mind-blowers. Check them out.