Post written by Muriel Rand, a professor of early childhood education at New Jersey City University. She began her career as a preschool teacher in central New Jersey and now teaches graduate- and undergraduate-level courses in classroom management, working with families, action research, and early literacy education. Connect with Rand on the ASCD EDge® social network and on her blog, The Positive Classroom.
“Ignore him—he just wants attention!” How many times have you heard a teacher say something like this? Attention-seeking behavior has a bad reputation in our schools, and it can often lead to difficult classroom management challenges. Yet Maslow, the often-forgotten humanistic psychologist, has helped us understand that seeking attention is a way of getting our love and belongingness needs met. The need for human interaction and affection is so strong that it is a kind of hunger—the more children lack these interactions, the harder they will try to get them. And any interactions, even negative ones, are better than none.
