EVEN 'BAD' TALENT HELPS KID LEARN.

Byline: STEVE YOUNG

CALIFORNIA schools face an ominous task as the Bush administration pushes the state to tighten its criteria for recognizing failing schools. Problem is, with budgets already pulled to the last loop on the belt and plenty of money already thrown at ``failing'' school systems, it's not so much the cost but the system itself that needs to be addressed.

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Secretary of Education Richard Riordan want to resurrect our public schools with nary a single additional expense, they need only start with what the student had ``wrong,'' but he had right.

This situation calls for ``spitballing'' - that is, finding out what the kid knows or does well, even if it's what others consider his failures.

Even if it's making spitballs.

When a child takes a test and scores 40 out of a possible 100 points, you can pretty well assume he has failed that test - and rightly so. In most cases, that's where it ends. The F stands; the student falls. If a teacher is concerned and (ha!) has the time, more likely than not she'll attempt to teach that student the other 60 percent, the 60 percent the student did not know. How? By reteaching what did not sink in the first time around.

This approach may be heroic, but it is not very efficient. In most cases, a student who didn't get it the first time around is unlikely to do much better trying to learn the same things a second time. That student falls further and further behind.

How do we repair the student? Well, instead of starting with what the student had wrong, why not start with what he had right?

For pure example's sake, let's say what the student does best is creating and then shooting spitballs. Have the student write about how he creates a spitball. Make him be as specific as possible. Remind him not to forget how much saliva, how much paper and what kind of paper would be best for sticking to blackboards and sundry types of skin and hair that are his targets. Our objective is to get the pencil and the brain moving.

Now, let's get to work on the visuals. Have that soggy bad boy draw up the plans, the blueprint for his spitball. The student doesn't have to know how to draw well; he only has to be able to put down on paper some semblance of his masterpiece. Seeing on paper what's in one's brain lets us expand on the possibilities. It doesn't have to be perfect; it only has to be.

Here's where the learning becomes fun. Have the student use his imagination on something he understands. If we created the most unusual, the most powerful or the funniest - or even the most historical - spitball, what would it be? How big? How small? How powerful?

What is most important in any teaching proposition is to establish the proper place to start. In failure, there is actually a place of knowledge, a place of comfort, and therefore a viable learning tool.

In most cases our educational process makes an effort to teach the same thing to every individual student, using the same techniques and expecting the same result. But with each student's individual experience and level of expertise, how in the world would you expect any diverse group of children to learn on an equal level?

While having teachers work with each student on some individual and separate curriculum seems like a time-implausible task, it can be done. We don't have to spend hours on this, just enough to give the kids a start, a bit of momentum.

Once a week set aside an hour in which the students work on a project of their own making. The concept should be theirs alone. The teacher spends five minutes with every student, making sure to remind students of their original visions. The teacher should suggest educational directions - writing, art, etc. - but nothing grammatical or structural. That's for another class, another time.

The idea is not to judge, not to stifle, not to kill the freedom and energy that creativity breeds.

In reality, it's also the lemons-into-lemonade principle. But we must allow students to create their own lemonade. It may not turn out as sweet as we think it should be, but we're not aiming for our own gustatorial results. In fact, we're not actually after lemonade at all. We're after each student's heart, soul and enthusiasm, that part of the student that says ``I can do it.''

Let's teach the kids to take risks in the classroom, not on the streets. Once that's set in motion, the miracles will happen. Let's not dampen that gusto. Let's do what we can to help our kids make their own miracles.