I can run, read, calculate, write, analyze, create, dig, cook, and run a blender. I can braid, hug, teach, clean, and blow bubbles. I cannot, however, dunk a basketball.
Standing at 5 foot nothing, dunking basketballs is not my thing. If you yell at me, I will not dunk a basketball. If you call me names, I will not dunk a basketball. You can offer to give me stickers and M & Ms . . . no dunking. Make me sit alone in a hallway, still no dunking. Have a meeting with my parents to discuss my refusal to dunk; probably won’t help. BUT . . . lead me to the gym, show me the basket, teach me to climb the ladder, hold the ladder while I climb, and I just might have the resources and confidence to climb that ladder and stuff the basketball in.
We ask some of our students to dunk basketballs everyday. We yell, belittle, bribe, punish, and discuss; but, still no basket. It isn’t until we take their hands in ours, lead the way, and MAKE them experience success that they will put the ball in. Can we do this for every skill in every subject? Of course not! Will we have to? Probably not. Most of us have hundreds of skills we are perfectly competent with, but there are some feats that seem insurmountable. This is when Vygotsky taught us to build a scaffold, lend a hand, and find a way to make it happen. It isn’t easy and sometimes it feels very unnatural, but that is what teachers DO. After it is demonstrated that a skill is possible, once they have tasted success, students can begin to build those scaffolds on their own. BUT . . . they must experience to believe.
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