Why Calvin Has This Pattern

Leo Rhody

Why Does Calvin Have This Pattern?

It is clear that Calvin enters an academic "fight-or-flight" in Miss Wormwood's class. In order to determine why, we must identify the two issues that contribute to this issue.

Why Calvin Has This Pattern

Calvin has this pattern because Miss Wormwood does not make any attempt to trigger Calvin's individual interest or any situational interest. With no topic interest formed, no learning will be fostered, and Calvin will only fall into resenting his time in class. Since he already has this pattern of behavior, it is clear that Wormwood has failed to incorporate interest in her classroom.

Since there is no attempt to foster topic interest, Calvin has no interest in new content.
Calvin's disinterest in learning will lead to negative emotions surrounding class time.
These negative emotions and disengagement will ultimately lead to poor academic performance and little care for achievement.

Issue #1: Lack of Individual Interest

Miss Wormwood fails to target Calvin's individual interests. It would be hard to say whether or not she knows all of his interests; however, it seems like Calvin gives many clues as to what he likes.
Calvin's desire for self-directed activity is met with papers, drills, and teacher-directed tasks. Calvin is also picked to answer questions in class instead of engaging him through physical activities or other creative means of assessing his knowledge.
Calvin's creativity is met with Miss Wormwood's monotonous pedagogy. When Calvin goes on rants about superheroes, he is not met with a teacher who engages his individual interest. Rather, Miss Wormwood punishes him.
Calvin's desire for adventure, movement, and play is met with a lecture-based classroom with no activity. Leaving Calvin feeling like he is full of "useless information".

Calvin's Values:

Autonomy and Self-Directed Activity
Imagination and Creativity
Activity and Play

Miss Wormwood's Values:

Compliance and Teacher-Directed Activity
Worksheets, papers, and lectures that lack personal relevance
Low-Activity, low-maintenance classroom environment

Issue#2: Lack of Situational Interest

Miss Wormwood's monotonous, rule-bound classroom offers little to no personal relevance for Calvin. Without meaningful context or personal relevance, Calvin will never buy into learning content in class. Resulting in no new topic interest. Miss Wormwood does not need to change the content she is teaching, but rather the way she is teaching it. She could try to include dinosaurs in a timeline of the history they are studying or in math problems. She could include fictional reading material about superheroes to gauge and grow Calvin's reading comprehension. It is also clear that Calvin is a very creative student, so giving him some autonomy would go far.

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