George Brown

George Brown, principal at North Miami Elementary School in Miami, Florida, describes how teachers can motivate at-risk students by providing individualized attention, academic challenges, and opportunities to achieve success. Excerpted from the video series Reconstructing to Promote Learning in America's Schools, videoconference #9, Reconnecting Students at Risk to the Learning Process (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1990).

"As far as successful classroom instruction I hope to contribute a lot to the classroom teacher. Those teachers that are highly motivated and they have a tendency to motive boys and girls within their classroom, they're giving them an opportunity to meet some forms of success through individualizing their programs, not setting limits to their academic gain, giving them all types of challenges, not restricting them in any form. I think that this is one of the ways that we have success in a meeting the means of some of our average students."

This Critical Issue was researched and written by Donna M. Ogle, professor of reading and language at National-Louis University in Evanston, Illinois.

Date posted: 1997