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Essay on All Students Have Needs

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All Students Have Needs

When I look around the room in my classes, I notice many differences. Every student comes from a different situation, some more difficult than others. Regardless of a student’s background, every student has needs. According to psychological theory, everyone has basic needs that must be fulfilled before one can concentrate on fulfilling more complex needs. Abraham H. Maslow describes a Hierarchy of Needs, which can be diagramed with a pyramid. The most basic needs are at the bottom of the pyramid and the most complex needs are at the top. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs consists of (from the bottom of the pyramid to the top): physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and …show more content…

This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs…. We [educators] should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas (Simons et al. 2).

Many students come to school without their physiological needs met. These needs are the ones necessary for a person to stay alive. They include the following: food, water, clothing, sleep, and shelter. “Undoubtedly these physiological needs are the most prepotent of all needs” (Kenyon 4). If these needs are not met, they then become the strongest motivational factors in a student’s life (Jones 18). Unfortunately, many students attending school do not have enough food to eat, good clothing to wear, or a place to sleep at night. Thus, they come to school not feeling well (Gwynne 1). For these students, the perfect future might be one where they have plenty of food and water, some clothes, and a place to sleep (Kenyon 4). Many of the students in my class come to school hungry and extremely tired. Carol Ann Perks, a teacher at Comstock Elementary School in Miami, Florida did a research study with her class. She found that students that do not eat breakfast have a hard time concentrating in class (Perks 75). Since I do not allow students to eat in the classroom because eating is a distraction, I allow the students who tell me they are hungry to go to the nurse to eat. I also suggest that they

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