The New Dare to Discipline (15 page)

Despite the common belief that children hate school, most of them hate staying home even more. Daytime television gets pretty monotonous, particularly under the hostile eye of a mom who had to interrupt her activities to come get her wayward son. Disruptive behavior is sometimes quickly extinguished under this controlled setting. It just isn’t profitable for the student to challenge the system. Positive reinforcement in the form of rewards is then generously applied for the child’s attempts to learn and study.

I worked with another child in a behavior modification classroom who was termed the most disruptive youngster ever seen at a major Los Angeles neuropsychiatric hospital. After four months in this controlled setting, he was able to attend a regular class in the public schools.
If
you can control the variables, you can usually influence behavior.

Finally, let me return to the first comment I made in response to your question. Everything depends on the policy of a local school district. If the board and administration are committed to discipline and structure, control
can
be achieved. The teacher is not left to do battle with a room full of energetic, giggling, blabbing troops who outnumber him or her thirty-five to one. That classroom teacher is like a policeman in a squad car. He can call for backup any time he needs it, and no one blames him if that support is required.

Every teacher needs to know the principal backs her in this way. Having been in the classroom myself, I can tell you I would not work in a district that didn’t believe in discipline.

Q
You didn’t mention corporal punishment as a deterrent
to school misbehavior. Do you believe in spanking our students?

A
Corporal punishment is not effective at the junior and senior high school levels, and I do not recommend its application. It can be useful for elementary students, especially with amateur clowns (as opposed to hard-core professionals). I am also opposed to abolishing spanking in schools because we have systematically eliminated the tools with which teachers have traditionally backed up their word. We’re down now to a precious few. Let’s not go any farther in that direction.

Q
Would you provide one more example of discipline in the
classroom? Teachers need every technique they can get to reinforce
their leadership these days. Describe a system that has
worked.

A
Here’s an idea that you might try. My wife, Shirley, taught school for five years before resigning to have a baby. Several years after Danae was born, Shirley decided to substitute a few days per week to help us support my expenses in U.S.C. graduate school. The first thing she noticed when she went back to teaching was that it was much harder to control a class as a substitute than as a full-time teacher.

“Oh boy!” shouted the kids when they saw her coming. “We’ll have fun today!”

Shirley and I sat down and discussed the struggles she was having with the children (grades 2–5) she encountered each day. “Loving them isn’t enough,” she said. “I need some leverage to keep them in order.”

We put our heads together and came up with a concept we called “Magic Chalk.” This is how it worked. Shirley would get to the classroom early and draw a simple skull and cross bones on the left side of the chalk board. Underneath were the words
POISON
LIST
.

Beside the scary drawing she taped asingle piece of paper. Then Shirley opened the doors and invited the students to come in. She did not, however, mention the skull as she pleasantly greeted her wide-eyed students. Within minutes, someone raised a hand to ask what everyone wanted to know: “What’s that picture there on the board?”

“Oh yes,” said Mrs. Dobson. “I meant to tell you about the Poison List.”

“First,” she said, “let me describe our class rules, today.” She told them they would need to raise their hands before talking; to stay in their seats until given permission to leave, and to ask for help if they needed paper or to sharpen a pencil, etc.

“Now, if you forget and break one of the rules, you will be asked to write your name on the board to the left of the poison symbol. Nothing will happen if you do.
But
, if you get your name on the board and then get two more marks by it—then—(she said with ominous overtones) . . .
then!
your name goes on the Poison List. All I have to say to you is . . .
Don’t!
get your name on the Poison List.” Shirley never quite told them what would happen to those unfortunate troops who made the big, bad list, but it
sounded
terrible. She hinted that it involved the principal, but she never explained how.

Then Shirley quickly walked over to her desk where a brand-new piece of chalk sat in a cup on the edge of her desk.

“Does anyone know what this is?” she asked cheerfully.

“That’s a piece of chalk,” several said at once.

“Not so!” replied Mrs. Dobson. “It may look like ordinary chalk, but it is much more important than that. This is
Magic
Chalk
. Believe it or not, this little white stick has the ability to hear. It has tiny little ears right there on the side. It can also see you. Tiny eyes appear right there on the end.” (She had drawn them in.) “The Magic Chalk is going to sit here on the edge of my desk, watching you and listening to what you say. It is looking for someone in particular. The Magic Chalk is hoping to see a boy or girl who is working very hard and being very quiet. And if it finds a student like that, it will suddenly appear on that person’s desk.”

“If you are the one chosen by the Magic Chalk, you do not have to ask what to do. Just pick it up, walk to the board and write your name over at the right side. Then for everyone chosen by the last class in the afternoon, you get a special treat.” (Are you ready for this?) “You will be permitted to leave school three minutes early at the end of the day!”

Big deal? You bet it was. The three-minute factor was not so important in itself, but enjoying the status of being chosen by the Chalk—writing your name on the board for all the world to see—and then walking out of class when others had to stay—it was a treasure. There was also the thrill of having the chalk show up on one’s desk, while others were working for the same goal.

The system worked like a charm because the kids loved it. In nearly two years of application every time Shirley was in the classroom, she usually managed to include most boys’ and girls’ names on the Magic Chalk list. But in all that time, she never once got a child’s name on the Poison List.

I consider this approach to have had all ingredients of a well-designed system of discipline. First, it was fun for the kids. Second, it offered something to gain for doing things right and something to lose for misbehaving. Third, it required no anger on the part of the teacher. And fourth, it was easy to implement.

Use your creativity to design a program for yourself. Elementary school students are suckers for games, fantasies, and contrived symbols or status. Junior and senior high students are remarkably tougher to entice.

Q
Did any parent or administrator complain about Shirley’s
use of the symbol for death, or about having the children unsupervised
in the hall three minutes early? And what about associating
a child with poison—a deadly substance.

Q
Myra Wolynski said in her “Confession” article that Sand
and Sea would not allow classroom organization or structure
because it damaged creativity. I have heard that view expressed
many times. Can it be supported?

A
We’ve all heard the warning that firm discipline destroys creativity, and there have been some studies to validate that assumption. However, it seems to me that creativity can flourish only when there’s enough order to allow for concentrated thought. Chaos and creativity don’t mix. On the other hand, an extremely oppressive atmosphere also stifles learning, which is what the research demonstrates. Everything seems to circle back to that word
balance,
which certainly has its place in the classroom.

Q
What would you do if you had an elementary school child
in a chaotic classroom with a disorganized teacher?

A
I would do everything I could to reassign my child with another teacher. Some very bad habits and attitudes can develop in ten months with an incompetent role model. Home schooling or private education might be considered, if resources permitted.

Q
How do you feel about year-round schools in areas where
overcrowding makes them advantageous?

A
Year-round schools are very hard on families. Siblings attending different schools may have their vacations at different times, making it impossible for families to take trips together. It is also more difficult to coordinate children’s time off with parent’s schedules. In short, year-round schools represent just one more hardship on families seeking to do fun and recreational things together each year.

Q
You indicated the Alternative School in Seattle had no
formal curriculum, no grades, no overall program, etc. I assume,
by contrast, that you favor a curriculum that emphasizes the
memorization of specific facts, which I consider to be a very low
level of learning. We need to teach concepts to our kids and help
them learn how to think—not just fill their heads with a bunch
of details.

A
I agree that we want to teach concepts to students, but that does not occur in a vacuum. For example, we would like them to understand the concept of the solar system and how the planets are positioned in rotation around the sun. How is that done? One way is for them to learn the distances between the heavenly bodies, i.e., the sun is 93 million miles from earth, but the moon is only 240,000. The concept of relative positions is then understood from the factual information. What I’m saying is that an understanding of the right factual information can and should lead to conceptual learning.

Q
But again, you’re putting too much emphasis on the memorization
process, which is a low academic goal.

Q
Like you, I have observed that elementary and junior high
school students—even high schoolers—tend to admire the more
strict teachers. Why is this true?

A
Teachers who maintain order are often the most respected members of the faculty, provided they aren’t mean and grouchy. One who can control a class without being oppressive is almost always loved by her students. That is true because there is safety in order. When a class is out of control, particularly at the elementary school level, the children are afraid of each other. If the teacher can’t make the class behave, how can she prevent a bully from doing his thing? How can she keep the students from laughing at one of its less able members? Children are not very fair and reasonable with each other, and they feel good about having a strong teacher who is.

Second, children love justice. When someone has violated a rule, they want immediate retribution. They admire the teacher who can enforce an equitable legal system, and they find great comfort in reasonable social expectations. By contrast, the teacher who does not control her class inevitably allows crime to pay, violating something basic in the value system of children.

Third, children admire strict teachers because chaos is nerve-wracking. Screaming and hitting and wiggling are fun for about ten minutes; then the confusion begins to get tiresome and irritating.