This phrase, ‘the eggshell syndrome’, struck a chord with me. Essentially it comes down to who holds all the ‘power’ in the room.
Most of us have come across an adult or two in our private or work life whose behaviour is such that it makes us delicately work around and avoid confrontation of any sort for fear of an ugly or at least uncomfortable scene.
Unfortunately some children can also cause this ‘eggshell syndrome’ to occur. Anyone who has worked in schools would have seen children who hold so much power it underminines their potential. Certainly after 45 years teaching and 25 years of being a principal, I have seen this power disparity in quite young children and their dysfunctional relationships with peers and adults not only negatively impacts their life, but that of many others.
The reasons for this are many and varied. In some cases their parents have simply allowed them to ‘run the roost’ at home to the detriment of the child. These youngsters have been given too much power for such a young age when they don’t have the maturity or life experience to make sound judgement calls. This can become out of control to such a point parents just acquiesce to avoid even more drama. Sadly this of course is just postponing the inevitable and sets the child up for dysfunction ahead.
In other cases the child may have had some early life experiences that have traumatised them. Sadly this anger and grief is always close to the surface and parents and teachers in their desire to be sensitive may allow the child to have more ‘say’ and ‘control’ than they are ready for.
Other children may unfortunately suffer from ODD. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is characterized by an ongoing pattern of “uncooperative, defiant, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with a youngster’s day-to-day functioning.”(2)
Whatever the cause of these children’s behaviour, it hugely impacts classroom dynamics and in far too many situations limits what is possible. Behaviour can include: regularly annoying others, calling out, defiance, manipulation, shifting of blame, seeking arguments, tantrums/outbursts of anger, violence to others and property, creation of unnecessary drama over minor infractions and general pushing of the boundaries.
The teacher has an extraordinary challenge when dealing with such children and if there is more than one in a class or other children who require considerable 1:1 time, it is downright demoralising and exhausting.
With these dysregulated children, the rest of the class have to tolerate frequent outbursts and quickly learn to avoid the child concerned for their safety or fear of being drawn into this turmoil. Essentially the class, including the teacher, learns to ‘walk on eggshells’ to avoid any drama. They are all ‘held to ransom’.
There are many skilful, committed and wonderful teachers who day in and day out work their magic with these children and call on all their experience to provide the best learning environment possible.
However in too many cases schools do not have appropriate resourcing and teachers can be left isolated and left to deal with some outrageous behaviour.
This is a crude analysis of what many NZ schools grapple with every day. Excellent programmes exist such as PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) and resource help from agencies such as the RTLB service (Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour) are available. Most schools employ teacher aides (TAs) to work with some of these dysregulated children but the funding is extremely limited. More often than not, schools significantly trim other important school resources from their budget to provide some TA support for classrooms who have these very needy children.
However the support from all these approaches is so limited some classroom teachers face burn out and many children’s education is compromised by the disruption caused by these dysregulated children. Words such as ‘equity’, ‘inclusion’, ‘wellbeing’ are just weasel words unless we respond to the needs of these ‘eggshell’ children with comprehensive support.
I emphasise that no blame is being attached to any child with what I have written. It is an adult created issue. The situation will not be solved solely by the education system but a multi-faceted approach involving all social agencies and a united vision.
This blog entry is not the place to unpack this very complex situation. I do want to acknowledge the goodwill and intent of our current government. However, it is time for some fresh thinking from the ‘coalface’ up. The information has been gathered by various robust means such as the relatively recent Bali Hague led ‘Task Force’ report. Principal groups have been very vocal about their concerns for our NZ teachers and student achievement related to this lack of learning and behaviour support in schools. Added to the problem is the fact that too many of our 5 year olds coming into schools are developmentally very young and far too many have behavioural and/or processing issues. There seems to be a real disconnect with what is the reality of day to day schoollife (‘coalface’)and the powers that be who are making strategic funding decisions.
Although it may seem simplistic, in my view this situation can be significantly helped by a few ‘silver bullets’. This view comes from my own ‘chalkface’ experience, significant reading on the matter and talking with a wide range of education leaders. The major ‘silver bullet’ and plea is to prioritise the education spend on what we know works and that is having ‘people on the ground’ in schools supporting learning and behaviour. We can apply ‘sticking plasters’ (RTLB **etc visits) or tinker with this and that, but the stark reality is you just can’t replace real time support. If we can meaningfully support children’s social, emotional and foundational skills in the early years of a child’s development, then they are set up for life.
It is not right for any teachers or children to be fearful each day because of a child or children who create ‘the eggshell syndrome’ effect on the class. They need support and uninterupted time with the class to get on with teaching and learning.
We have a chance to be transformational but if we continue with the same approach we have now, many vulnerable children will languish and the next level up will underperform.
Warren Owen
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201601/eggshell-relationships
https://www.nymetroparents.com/article/Walking-on-Eggshells-Oppositional-Children-and-Mental-Health
** No criticism of the RTLB service as there are many fine educators doing a wonderful job but their offering is so limited by resourcing.
