E is for Educational  Excellence          omaisa.com 

There are certainly plenty of teachers who like to take the reins in a strict way to improve discipline in the classroom.  The teacher is the moral authority, and developmental expert.  (Although there are the tired, the burned out, or uncaring teachers who may even fear for their personal safety instead of focusing on the moral growth of the students..)(Alvarez, 2007.)

The authority teachers are numerous and interesting.  As for authors of this type, they may be experts in a particular field or specialty in education, science, or child development.

A prime example is teacher and author Carla Hannaford, a neurophysiologist.  She tells us why children must move, be physically active to learn.  In focusing on brain health, Hannaford teaches about the nourishment of neurons, the cells of the brain.  The wise teacher promotes coordination and particular movement exercises to be used in the class with students who are 'spiraling downward,' and suffering stress due to their learning environment, which is heavily oriented towards visual and sensory learning.  Although criticized for pseudo-scientific jargon in her work, having breaks in instruction where teachers pay attention to physical stress can never be a mistake.

The strong discrimination against kinesthetic/gestalt learners can be overcome with proper physical activity prescribed as Brain Gym during our lessons (Hannaford, 1991).  Although perhaps we could consider Hannaford's works to be differentiated or enlightened, her focus is almost a laser light, with a listing of detailed instructions for leading the physical movement of children.  Softening the focus a bit is her reminder to encourage holistic, intuitive, and image-based thinking (Hannaford, 1991).  Various other 'breathing time' exercises and relaxation techniques are used throughout the world in classrooms.  The properly trained Authority teacher can use them to micro-manage and rescue the students from judging themselves worthless, or acting out against the system.

  Troubled Student Technique Shortlist:  1.  Focus on health and emotions: make sure your students are physically comfortable, feel safe, and can have fun in school.  2.  Differentiate:  [make instruction match different student abilities by having unique materials, instruction, and/or expectations] by giving appropriate assignments and allowing free time for studies they can succeed at with some challenge, even if they seem too simple, difficult, or inappropriate for the age of the student, for example: graphic novels/comic books for teenagers who cannot attend to novels.  3.  Grab their interest: remember that real-life issues and objects, small-group challenges, and audio-visual interactive technology grab modern students' attention.  4.  Get to know the home life.  Talk about the situation with parents, and have resources available to share with them. 5. Use cooperative learning and/or pair a student with a caring peer.  Monitor their interaction and taper it off as confidence grows.  6. Talk with the student!  A little understanding may be magical.

Assertive Discipline -- A well-trodden path

Lee Canter (with Marlene Canter), is another much-published champion within American educational culture, leading the charge for teacher as authority.  A key to positive outcomes in the classroom, made clear in their work, is not hesitating to identify behaviors as problem behaviors, and not failing to deal effectively with them.  Assertiveness involves standing up for the right, one's rights, while not violating or abusing others.  The social view here is that of three types of people, the non-assertive or wishy-washy, the responsive or assertive, and the hostile (Canter, 1982).  Luckily, we at least have a chance to change our own designation.  We need to get in the middle category.

View of the child:  Many children have behavior or emotional problems.  Their behavior is seen as "..a plea by the child for someone, i.e., the teacher, to care enough about him to make him stop” (Canter, 1982, p. 7)  Very similar to popular opinion, assertive teachers are needed to overcome the effects of parents who are not setting good examples of behavior for the children, nor good limits.  Canter asserts that no child should be allowed to hurt themselves or violate the rights of others.  This is a strict line not to be crossed, whereas other education theorists, for example Jonathan Kozol, might purposefully give no simple answers and reflect sadly when hearing about young students who do things like kick their classmates in the face, again (perhaps day after day--how can a teacher allow this?).  I suppose, if one grows up in a violent home or classrooms, one might be accustomed to such kicking, and hope to slowly change it over long periods of time.  Canter is definitely not so patient.

There are certain students, who cannot be expected to always follow rules, such as those with brain damage or other medical conditions.  Yet improvement can be made.  Other causes such as ignorance, peer pressure, inadequate parenting, and social norms from particular socioeconomic backgrounds are roadblocks to be overcome, rather than just improved.  The questions of classroom environment, heredity, even illness, must be considered.  We can expect to need specialists in dealing with some things.  Yet we also know that children can suffer when expectations placed on them are too low.  We shouldn‘t fail to even try.

With Assertive Discipline, specific behaviors, explicit rules and expression of the teachers needs are central to having students understand and behave properly.

The System: our teacher education systems do not prepare educators to deal with the needs of all types of students (Alvarez, 2007).  The solution is training in: emotional disabilities, assertive statements, setting limits, following through on consequences, asking for help from parents, principals and others.  Teachers often make threats, when they should make promises, Canter admonishes.  Teachers need to consider their responses to specific behaviors, make discipline plans, rehearse them, and follow through.

The Positive Side:  the need for joy in the classroom is not left out.  Part of discipline in classroom management is an emphasis on reward and positive consequences.  Special privileges, recognition to parents with notes or phone calls, even cookies and ice cream are part of assertive discipline.  With some students, a contract that is positive in design can be useful.  Differentiating, young students may need to have positive consequences everyday, or every hour.  Seventh graders or older students might need positive consequences each day to three weeks.  Canter has many suggestions, and specific activities for all sorts of behaviors, including whole class rebellion, from Marbles in a Jar to renting classroom " valuables."

The Realistic Side: Canter is practical and sees the various roadblocks different personalities (as in teachers) might have to implementing a positive culture with unique responses to unique students.  In his book Assertive Discipline, Canter offers worksheets and forms for overcoming roadblocks, defining needs and wants, even surveying positive follow-through.  To an overwhelmed teacher, there is a worksheet for teachers and principals.  If something can be salvaged from our relationship in the classroom, or 'broken' class culture, these can certainly help.  If the teacher is willing and able to make an effort, and the students are also.  Reducing the frequency of our problem behaviors, and improving lives as we muddle through 'off years' [with significant numbers of 'normal students' somehow missing in classrooms!] might be enough to consider things a success.

Dark-Side Discipline:

Overpowering teacher-led discipline can go too far.  What if the teacher, high on authority and lacking self-discipline, becomes the tyrant?  Our discipline champions don't fail to keep this in mind--whether tyranny comes from teachers, vice principals, even the school board, state, or national strictures.

What kind of discipline is hiding in the dark side? Jordan Riak with Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education reminds us in “Plain Talk About Spanking“ (Riak, 2007).  Corporal punishment as discipline is still legal in at least 22 states.  Misbehaving children in large numbers may be paddled or struck on their buttocks or hands, forced to exercise, or face other punishments.  This is done by concerned educators, worried they have let the children go to far.  Punishment is often supported by the worried parents (Riak, 2007).  Unfortunately, too often they are the kind of parents (and educators) who cause trouble themselves!

Bodily punishment, rather than stamping out misbehavior and fostering learning in the classroom, is seen for what it is by the students --cruelty.  Corporal punishment for discipline most often takes place in, and perpetuates, our most troubled school cultures (Riak, 2007).

Students treated in the systems do learn.  Many learn to become abusers themselves, attacking, bullying, and joining gangs to murder people and their environments (Riak, 2007).  We must never forget that.  Our terrorists, mass murderers and cults have their roots experiencing physical punishment in childhood.  A strong case can be made for altering our privacy laws in the protection of children, as well as preventing the infliction of pain in the intent to educate.

Will we bring about a major change, a reverse to that trend of high crime, continued war, and perfect human nature with Teacher as Authority-style discipline?  Considering other cultures, with different ways completely, and seemingly safe and very crime-free lives, makes me wonder.  I suggest we could experiment a bit more and look into more successful cultures more carefully.

Some less-troubled places often have a uniformity in their neighborhoods and schools, in skin color, family background, language, religion, and other factors that is lacking in more diverse schools.  Yet does that mean difference must cause conflict, or have we assumed that it must?  Diversity could lead to greater peace, less need for discipline, and more enjoyable lives, or it may have no affect.

One thing is for sure--many of our classrooms have a wide variety of students.  To provide an enjoyable education, assertive discipline techniques may be helpful, with the right students.  The First Days of School authors Harry and Rosemary Wong (1991) point to proper planning before the school year begins (or instruction begins) as a critical time to set the tone.  This is standard teacher authority thinking, which, like first impressions, has a good deal of truth to it:

" What you do on the first days of school

will determine your success or failure

for the rest of the school year.

You will either win or lose your class

on the first days of school"  (Wong & Wong, 1991, p. 3).

The Wongs'  (1991) view is that if students are not performing well, it is that teachers have failed the students, not the students who have failed.  This is a proper antidote to the dark side of authority.

Let's continue our investigation with the: