ABSTRACT
If children are to manage our world in the future then they need to be equipped to do so. Not all children will grow peacefully and contentedly. Some children from almost their first breath present problems. The caring adults may respond spontaneously, and unconsciously develop a need in the child to manage his own worlds in ways that are different from others. At times these are anti-social ways that will present the child as a problem to himself in which his reactions from others will always be negative and which he may then seek out re-interring his self-image. Other children may have similar reactions from their carers and yet they may develop more positively and with other strategies to help them face the world. Surprisingly, children having the same mothering and fathering do not present similar behaviours. After all they have a different pecking order, variable physical characteristics, different experiences or similar experiences with different interpretations. The expression, 'it was a hard act to follow' is about the impossibility of sameness, and says nothing about the strength of difference. Sometimes people's expectations can create stress for some members of a family and similarly for members of the class who find it difficult to keep in line with the higher achievers in any part of the curriculum. Giving all children credit for their strengths and working encouragingly with their weaknesses is part of balancing the equation of the classroom.
