There should be secondary-education programs just for teaching alternative kids, says Agassiz Centre for Education (ACE) administrator Sandy Balascak.
The teacher/guidance counsellor/TEDx speaker will be teaching a course this summer at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus called “Problem Youth vs. Youth with Problems.”
Geared to future educators, Balascak hopes the two-week course opens university students’ eyes to a different way of approaching kids perceived to have issues.
“The course is going to be an opportunity for me to go in and mould the minds of young teachers up and coming and teach them how to look at these kids a little bit differently,” Balascak said.
“In a lot of cases, its just that the [teachers] don’t understand. A kid is not going to be able to come in and be all bouncy and joyful if their parents are addicts and beating them and not feeding them…”
Balascak said teachers need to learn to address the root of their students’ behavioural issues and use new ways to talk to and approach them.
“Just your attitude towards them is going to make a huge difference in their behaviour,” she said.
“The number one thing I want them to come away with is, when they look at that kid, rather than saying, ‘That’s a problem kid,’ they say, ‘What is that kid’s problem? What’s going on with them?’
“At the end of the day, a lot of what we do is more about treating the symptom rather than the cause,” explained Balascak. “Which is OK, cause sometimes you have to treat the symptom in the moment – but if you don’t treat the cause, the symptom is just going to keep coming back.”
Balascak hopes the UBC students come away with shifted mindsets. One way she plans to achieve that is by bringing ACE students in on the last day of the course.
“I want to show off their success. I can put the kids up there and say, ‘This is the end result’ and have them talk about where they came from a couple years ago to where they are now,” she said. “Part of it is bragging about my kids [but] it’s also a tangible thing.”
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Balascak said courses like hers help give validity to working with at-risk youth.
“My dream, actually, is to see that one day one of the universities will have a specialization in alternate teaching.”