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Friday, August 19, 2016

An Effective Video About the Way Adults Talk to Kids Is Causing Debate

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: An Effective Video About the Way Adults Talk to Kids Is Causing Debate:

An Effective Video About the Way Adults Talk to Kids Is Causing Debate

Video tries to show how the way adults talk to kids matters




A video about the way adults talk to kids is causing debate. It focuses on the ways adults can affect a child’s education through interactions with them. Although the response is varied, there’s no denying the power of its message.


The Atlanta Speech School released a video called Every Opportunity and the story it depicts is eliciting a strong reaction from teachers and parents. It follows a little boy throughout his day at school and shows how the adults he encounters, from bus driver to teachers, interact with him.

It starts with the child climbing the bus steps and giving the driver an enthusiastic hello that’s met with little more than a grunt. The boy tries to greet an aide at the school’s entrance and she ignores him. He asks the cafeteria employee for his student number and she’s short-tempered and impatient. His teacher grows annoyed at the behavior in his classroom and speaks to the children in a harsh tone.


The second half of the video shows all the same scenarios, but with the adults responding to the children positively. By the end, the kids are depicted as their adult selves, confident and ready for the world because the teachers and staff gave them the encouragement and positivity they needed to succeed.

The video is hard to watch and as such, is provoking a response from some teachers who say these interactions are not the norm and that they make every effort to treat their students with respect.

Nonsense! Let’s demonize teachers as usual. The kids at my school beg to stay during school vacations and are sad when summer break starts. School is the most stable and safe environment for a lot of them. Yes adults should watch their tone with kids, but to make teachers out to be drill sergeants is unfair.

In my 9 years of teaching, I’ve never seen the jerk teachers that are portrayed here. Every one I know works extremely hard to make sure their child is loved and respected. That’s why we are teachers. I agree that education is in need of reform, but this teacher-shaming video is ridiculously inaccurate. Teachers are the ONE thing in education that are doing what’s right by their Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública: An Effective Video About the Way Adults Talk to Kids Is Causing Debate: