ABSTRACT
Increasingly, schools are dealing with a growing number of nontraditional students who come from nontraditional hornes. The reality is that traditional teaching and learning techniques do not work with these nontraditional students. If we want to reach these youngsters, we must use nontraditional teaching and learning techniques. As educators, most of us come from traditional families (two-parent hornes, a stay-at-home mom, and a value placed on education as a way to succeed in society). Traditional students are the most likely to succeed in school, but nontraditional students also have strengths as weIl as weaknesses. Their weaknesses are easy to identify (they come from single-parent, female-dominated hornes, live in poverty, speak English as a second language, etc.). However, identifying their strengths can be much more difficult.
