SECOND STEP E-Newsletter
August 2010
Dexter the Tough
by Margaret Peterson Haddix, illustrated by Mark Elliot
Reading level: Grades 2–5
Distraught at being left with his grandmother while his parents travel across the country to seek treatment for his sick dad, Dexter enters his new fourth-grade classroom with a chip on his shoulder. “I’m the new kid. I am tuf,” he writes in his first assignment. “This morning I beat up a kid.” When his teacher gently pushes him to expand and elaborate as part of the editing process, she unwittingly starts him on a quest to find friendship, truth, and a place for himself in his new school.
Although Dexter pretends his writing assignment is fictitious, in fact, it’s true...or at least one version of the truth. As Dexter goes about gathering details about characters, setting, and motive, he gradually uncovers a more subtle, multilayered reality. The days go by, and misunderstandings and misperceptions clear up as Dexter’s teacher guides his writing project. He answers questions such as “Why did you get in a fight?” and experiments by rewriting the story from the perspective of Robin, the boy he hit. To his surprise, he learns that he and Robin have some things in common, in spite of different perspectives. More importantly, they also have something to offer each other.
Social and Emotional Lessons in Dexter the Tough
The particular circumstances that have led Dexter to his new school are unique, but the broader situation is not, especially in these “tuf” economic times. Children who are placed in a new school due to a family move, financial hardship, or any other reason face extra challenges. The ability to make and keep friends is a priceless skill in the best of times; during crisis, it’s even more important. Dexter lashes out in anger to protect himself from imagined attacks from classmates and teachers. But his ongoing writing project teaches him the value of taking other people’s perspectives. Dexter and Robin befriend each other in a roundabout way, with clever guidance from Dexter’s teacher, who is quick to pick up on his writing deception and see through to his pain.
The SECOND STEP program teaches students the value of empathy, how to identify other people’s feelings, how and why people perceive situations differently, to be aware of not attributing hostile intent, to show concern for others, and a plethora of other friendship-building skills. The STEPS TO RESPECT program, with its emphasis on friendship skills and bullying prevention, also teaches children how to join in groups, make conversation, and deal with conflict. After reading Dexter the Tough as a class, students and teachers might discuss the following:
- How might Dexter have handled his move to a new school if he had mastered friendship skills already?
- When Robin, in a vulnerable moment, asks Dexter how one makes friends, Dexter realizes he has never thought about it. “Back home, he’d just had friends, he hadn’t had to work at it. And here—he hadn’t wanted friends. The other kids had stopped asking him to play kickball after that first day.” Why was it easier for Dexter to make friends back home?
- How and why do Dexter’s perceptions change after Robin introduces him to some of the people he thought were out to get him on the first day?
- How does Dexter ultimately apologize to Robin? How does Robin respond? Why is their friendship different from any they’ve had before?
