THE ART OF DISCIPLINE


What the hell do we do with little Tommy? He just won't sit still, he constantly talks, he ignores efforts to get him to pay attention and he is a complete distraction for the rest of the class. You have talked to his parents (who are convinced he has ADHD), you've talked to Tommy, you've made him come after school to make up work, you've taken away his privileges and you have sent him to the office for talks with the vice-principal. None of it has worked and quite frankly you are wearing thin and at the end of your proverbial rope.

Sound familiar? Have you ever had little Tommy in your classroom? Or, worse yet, is little Tommy your son? Is there any hope? Is there any way you can get through to this kid before you completely lose what is left of your sanity? The answer is an unqualified and enthusiastic YES! There is hope! Unfortunately for teachers, and especially for new teachers, there has been no training for this situation. All of the theory classes ever taught have not and will not prepare you for the occasional student who simply will not conform to classroom procedure, and it seems like every class has at least one of these students.

So what do you do? I'll tell you what you shouldn't do, and write this down and staple it to your forehead immediately. Do not continue to send Tommy down to the office to be disciplined. Administrators get very tired and very aggravated when they are called upon to do your job, and faster than you can say "Go to the office" there will be a note in your permanent file saying you can't handle classroom discipline.

You most certainly should keep the lines of communication open with the parents but please do not buy in immediately to the ADHD excuse. In many cases it's a convenient way to label and treat a simple case of a kid who just doesn't like school. That brings us to punishment and quite frankly punishment is exhausting, for you, the student being punished and for the class....and it's time consuming. The time spent punishing Tommy is time spent away from teaching the other 24 students, and that's inexcusable.

Discipline requires a ton of pre-game preparation, but if you do it right you'll be amazed how few true discipline problems you have during your next 180 day school year. Read the next sentence very carefully because it may prevent you from buying Tylenol every week for the entire year. DISCIPLINE IS ALL ABOUT RESPECT! I thought about this the other night and I could count on one hand the number of students in seventeen years that I considered true discipline problems who I couldn't handle. One was being sexually abused by her father, two were twins who had been through three divorces in ten years and one was raised by a mother who was an active drug addict. Those four kids, God bless them, simply did not fit any mold and were in desparate need of professional help which I could not provide them. By the way, the girl eventually committed suicide, the twins are both in Walla Walla Penetentiary and the boy is now a drug addict himself. There are some we simply can't save in the classroom; they will haunt us until the day we die but we can't save them. Too much damage was done before they ever entered our classroom and that is just the sad reality.

Mutual respect is the key. The students under your care must know that you respect them as human beings and you care about their lives outside the classroom. In return you will find that if the student respects you they will have a tendency to behave in your classroom. Sounds terribly simplistic....but it's true. I have always made it a part of my job to walk the playground during recesses so I could talk to the kids outside of the classroom. I have always tried to attend their extra-curricular activities and a related note is that I've always tried to coach sports at every school I've taught at. There is something about being a part of the athletic department; it's a special clique that allows you to relate to kids outside of the classroom and be a part of their lives during recreation times, and students show amazing respect to someone who controls whether they are going to play in a game or not. Finally, I have always tried to attend student functions outside of the school arena....piano recitals at their church, ballet performances at the local civic center....whatever. The point is that students NEED to see that the teacher is more than just the delivery person of facts and figures. Teaching in a classroom needs to be more than just a lecture and a homework assignment. Teaching in a classroom should be a demonstration that there is a genuine concern for the student, that you care about them not only as students but as human beings as well. Teaching should not be just about a paycheck but also about the difference you can make in a child's life.

Believe me, if you do the pre-game preparations, if you show students that you care about them outside of the classroom, if you go the extra mile and show kids that you love them, then most of your classroom discipline problems will vanish.

Try it! What have you go to lose?

Bill Holland