“ ‘Difficult’ students. Understanding them helps us to help them.”

The new school year has started again – with a lot of hope on part of the teachers as well as the students. But questions may soon arise about the ‘difficult’ ones among them. ‘What’s wrong with Leon?’ ‘How can I help Angela?’ some teachers will ask themselves, hoping for a quick solution to the problems and considering a consultation with the school psychological service.

Those who understand
them can help them

‘Teaching is a wonderful job – but also a challenging one: opening up again and again interesting views of nature and culture to young people, encouraging them to engage in educational processes, promoting their personal development’ (p. 9), writes Michael Felten at the beginning of his book, whose title says it all: “‘Difficult’ students. Understanding them helps us to help them”.
  The author focusses on the individual child. However, it is not only about obvious and noisy, but also about withdrawn, inconspicuous children – always with the aim of helping such irritated or disheartened children and young people to develop more courage and self-confidence so that they can face the challenges of life with more determination and confidence. Of course, there is no patent remedy, as the author clarifies right at the beginning, “nevertheless, examples of examples of successful pedagogical interventions can be used to distil essential principles for dealing with difficulties, disruptions and blockages in the classroom”. (p. 10)

Alfred Adler – a pedagogically focussed,
 depth-psychology approach

In the first part of his book, Felten analyses well-documented examples and draws on the valuable body of older literature on individual psychology. This depth-psychological approach with its strong pedagogical focus was developed and successfully applied in the first half of the last century by Alfred Adler, a Viennese medical doctor and psychologist, and his co-workers.
  Felten skilfully quotes abridged versions of their findings, but always refers to the original texts, which are well worth reading. As different as the examples given are, what they have in common is that teachers did try not to regard problematic behaviour as a disorder and were not caught up in an unfortunate vicious circle with the child, but: ‘They rather regarded problematic behaviour as a symptom, as an expression of an underlying psychological distress”, as Michael Felten constates. The reader gets to know Max, Fritzl, Leopold, Helga, Markus, Hans, Karl, children with their individual problems and life stories, all of them needing help. Using their examples, the reader can acquire the basics of individual psychology as the key to a deeper understanding of educational problems.

And in the present day?

The second part of the book deals with ‘seven pitfalls’, as the author describes them after taking stock, referring to the difficulties that teachers face in today’s classrooms. Again the examples show clearly that it is not about recipes or undue generalisations, but always about understanding the individual development of a child, about the development of its personality in the context of family and school environment – and the conclusions the child has drawn, or as Alfred Adler puts it: “It is not a child’s experiences that dictate its behaviour, but the conclusions it draws from these experiences.” (p. 62 from: Adler Alfred 1931/1979)
  This is also how we get to know them – Nihat, Azar, Jochen, Justus, Sera, Charlie, and Martin. They all stand out at school and pose puzzles as troublemakers, little princes, pranksters, clowns, overly shy, insecure or withdrawn children. The pedagogical stance in dealing with them also becomes clear. In the words of Alfred Adler: “We have to be certain that we can always find a method to help a child. Even under the worst circumstances, a certain gate is always open ... but we have, of course, to discover it first”. (p. 65 from: Adler Alfred 1930/1976) According to Felten, it is helpful to find out about the child’s family history in order to “take the child’s emotional perspective, see the world through his or her eyes and hypothesise about his or her lifestyle”. (p. 58) With the background of a trusting relationship and the involvement of the class community, this would enable a teacher to sensitively discover a child’s strengths as a positive starting point and encourage it to take new step – a path which many parents can recognise as a way out of a difficult situation and thus can join in and support the process.

Bridging the gap between
depth psychology and pedagogy

In the fourth chapter of the book, the author presents insights gained from the examples in the form of a manual of individual psychology and pedagogical interventions derived from it in a comprehensible and practical way, before going on to take up some important psychoanalytical impulses that contribute to understanding a child (especially with regard to diagnoses that have unfortunately become common today, such as ADHD, autism or absenteeism). In doing so, he succeeds in building an important and nowadays neglected bridge between depth psychology and pedagogy.

The school class
as a developmental worker

Because of this, the reader is well prepared for the “seven miniatures” in the next part of the book. The author writes that there is not always enough time to shed light on a child’s individual background, but the experience with all the children you have already met and/or worked with mentally is an important support here. This experience can serve as the teacher’s own “diagnostic glasses” and help you to find the right approach to deal with the child.
  In short descriptions, we get to know seven children as we might meet them in today’s classrooms – listless, silent, impulsive, offended or in denial – and can   work on recognising the respective problems against the background of what we have already experienced and start looking for solutions.
  This also includes involving the school class as a “developmental worker”. The school class plays an important role in all examples listed by Michael Felten. The class community became a healing place, or as Alfred Adler writes: “I have seen many difficult children whose behaviour was completely changed by the interest of their peers and by working with them”. (p. 96 of: Adler Alfred 1931/1979)
  The experimental school of individual psychology, which was first publicly tested in Vienna in the 1920s (until 1934), proved that a promising perspective can be developed with children and young people with learning and behavioural difficulties (who today occupy an important place in educational policy discussions). In a quote attributed to him, Alfred Adler says: “You don’t get any further by fighting with the pupils, but by analysing their patterns benevolently and directing their energy in useful directions”. (p. 58)

Equal encounters
and professional expertise

Of course, the best chances of success arise when parents can be motivated to become co-players, as the roots of the difficulties can often be found in the family context. The author therefore devotes a further chapter to this topic. Parents are most willing to help “if they feel that I like their child – despite the problems it has; if they do not feel criticised as parents – even if there are reasons for this; if I can convince them that my demands strengthen the child’s abilities; if I do not demand too much from them.” (p. 103). This is the basis of an atmosphere of constructive dialogue in which the teacher meets the parents on an equal footing and they can experience the teacher’s professional competence, confidence and optimism. Even if working with parents in this way takes time, it is time well spent. This is an experience with which one can only agree! The author also refers to Alfred Adler’s transcribed conversations with parents, in which many examples can be found that show the ease and optimism with which he tackled even difficult problems (e.g. in Adler Alfred 1930/1993).

And today?

Today’s school situation is challenging for teachers, and many – disappointed or exhausted by their day-to-day work – give up (too) early, looking for less demanding pedagogical niches, invoking their work-life balance and only working with a reduced workload and little responsibility, or even look for a new field of activity. What a pity! But perhaps they should read Michael Felten’s book first, immerse themselves in the tasks at hand and get to know themselves and their own reactions (just as they should do with their students), because as Felten writes: “All in all, it’s like a coach in a sports competition: he can’t only become active after the finish line and then only if he’s successful – he’s needed throughout the entire training session. He must follow the movements closely, must occasionally spur on, must be attentive, attentive and present the whole time.” (p. 94)
  Michael Felten’s book is an important source of inspiration. It offers a wealth of knowledge and suggestions for further study for all those who are concerned about the well-being of our rising generation. It is recommended to every teacher so that they can experience the satisfaction they seek in their profession. It should also be recommended to all those responsible for education and education policy makers so that they can see and experience how the educational steamer can again be steered in the right direction.  •

Felten Michael. “Schwierige Schüler”. Wer sie versteht, kann ihnen helfen (‘Difficult’ students. Understanding them helps us to help them); Dietzingen: Reclams Universal Bibliothek. 2023, ISBN 978-3-15-014361-2, also available as an e-book.

For further reading and food for thought

Adler, Alfred. (1930/1993) Das Leben gestalten. Vom Umgang mit Sorgenkindern. (The Pattern of Life). Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer-Verlag
Adler, Alfred. (1930/1976). Kindererziehung. (The education of children) Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer-Verlag
Adler, Alfred. (1930/1974). Die Technik der Individualpsychologie BD. 2: Die Seele des schwer erziehbaren Schulkindes. (The Technique of Individual Psychology, vol. 2: The Soul of the Difficult Schoolchild); Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer-Verlag
Bonfranchi Riccardo, Perret Eliane. (2021). Heilpädagogik im Dialog. Praktische Erfahrungen, theoretische Grundlagen und aktuelle Diskurse. (Curative education in dialogue. Practical experiences, theoretical foundations and current discourses). Bielefeld: Athena/wbv, ISBN: 978-3-7639-6580-9
Bonfranchi Riccardo, Dünki Renate, Perret Eliane. (2022). Integration, Separation, Kooperation. Ein heilpädagogischer Blick auf die Bildungschancen von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Behinderungen. (Integration, separation, co-operation. A curative education perspective on the educational opportunities of children and adolescents with disabilities). Bielefeld: Athena/wbv. ISBN 978-3-7639-7159-6