The Plan B Classroom 253common cause of explosions. Many explosive children
find homework to be extremely frustrating, perhaps
because they don’t have any brain energy left after a
long day at school, or because their medication has worn
off, or because they have learning problems that make
homework completion an agonizing task, or because
homework—especially long-term assignments—requires
a lot of organization and planning. Thus, it’s no accident
that these children often exhibit some of their most ex-
treme explosiveness while they’re trying to do homework.
Do these difficulties render some children incapable of
completing the same homework assignments as their
classmates? Sometimes. Does having a child explode rou-
tinely over homework help him feel more successful
about, and set the stage for, future completion of home-
work? No. With Plan A, the teacher is simply insisting that
a child complete his homework, regardless of the toll it
takes on the child and on the folks who are enforcing the
teacher’s will at home. With Plan C, the teacher is drop-
ping the homework expectation completely.
And with Plan B? First, we’re going to operate on the
assumption that if the student could do all the home-
work you’ve assigned, he would. Then we’re going to get
a good handle on the factors (including pathways) that
are contributing to the child’s difficulties on homework.
Then we’re going to apply the expertise we’ve obtained
from the preceding chapters and engage the child and/or