Sisyphus and the Itsy Bitsy Spider
Working with Children
by Jim Hartsell
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Incestuous Amplification
Incestuous amplification is actually a military term. The term has to do with officers involved in strategy listening primarily or only to each other and becoming more insulated and more willing to make riskier decisions as a result.
In the context of working with children, I understand incestuous amplification to mean that, if a group of people involved with a child only talk among themselves, there’s the incest, about what’s going, why the child is behaving that way, and what needs to be done about it, then the position of that group tends to become more rigid and more extreme, there’s the amplification. People who think alike tend to reinforce each others point of view. This is not exclusive to the field of education.
The practical application of this is a note of caution. If we find ourselves with a situation in which a child’s behavior is resistant to our efforts to change it, we should check to see if we are committing incestuous amplification. If we find that we are only talking to those who already share our beliefs about why the child is misbehaving and what should be done about it, and we are being unsuccessful at effecting a change in the child’s behavior, we should consider the possibility that we may be missing something important. Sometimes the thing we are missing lies within the group of adults.
Sometimes it’s not the child.
A New Viewpoint Can Be Useful
Sometimes a new viewpoint is very useful. It may not provide the answer, but it may at least function to prompt a re-examination of the issue. Decisions in the field of education should be made with the child’s needs as the first priority. Jim Hartsell’s Sisyphus and the Itsy Spider further discusses education decisions. The book is available at www.JimHartsell.com.
If the re-examination of the issue makes the group uncomfortable, that is important information about the group and how it is working. One of the easiest ways out of a situation in which the agreed-upon plan is not working is to blame the child. This is not usually the most useful path to a solution. It may be that the solution lies within the actions and decisions of the educators working with the child.
Sisyphus and the Itsy Bitsy Spider addresses the importance of self-examination on the part of the educators working with these difficult children. Working with children can be both a challenging and rewarding endeavor. For more detailed information, visit www.JimHartsell.com.
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