Discipline

...is a tricky matter. It's difficult (probably impossible) to say that one thing always works while one thing never works. However, there are guidelines that all teachers seem to follow because there do seem to be tried and true methods that work 90% of the time. To me, it seems that the object of discipline is to stop problems before they start. This did not happen today.

Here's the scenario. I'm in Ms. L's English classroom. The students sit in groups of three or four around the room. They are involved in individual work about making inferences in a particular story that they each read the day before. Ms. L. and myself float around the room to see who is on task and who needs help. Soon, she interrupts them and explains to take out their notebooks to take notes on grammar.

Now, I learned in grad school that the most effective discipline procedure involves, first and foremost, an engaging lesson plan. And I have seen this method in action. It works. But taking notes is one of the dullest things I can imagine for a classroom. Especially notes on grammar. (And this is coming from a grammar-loving English teacher.) Yet, the students know the notes are part of their grades, so they are mostly obedient. Even if their notes are not up to par, they are, for the most part, not disruptive.

However, now we come to the rub. I stated in the beginning that the object of discipline is to stop something before it starts. Perhaps if Ms. L. had been slightly more observant about students' abilities to stay on task the entire situation could have been avoided. But instead, it exploded. There is a student, call him A, who is almost always talking when he is not supposed to. The other students who sit at his table encourage this. Simple solution: move him to another table, or to the "refocus area" (meant for students who are not on task [i.e. student A]) during more individual work. Many twelve year olds (and thirty year olds, for that matter) have trouble focusing when left to their own devices, after all. I noticed several times (today and earlier) that his work was not completed. Clearly student A is easily distracted.

Instead, Ms. L. waited for his disruptions to fester, and lost it. Soon after introducing the notes, she asked student A to move to another seat since she had asked him to stop talking before and he didn't. This was fine in and of itself, as was her raising her voice at student A when he refused and had a bad attitude. Students should obey teachers. Even if they are completely wrong. That's just the way it goes. So student A reluctantly moves (away from his seatmates, female J and male M), and after he sits and opens his notebook, Ms. L. said, "I know J is interesting and funny, but you have to stop staring at her so you can take notes." Ouch. I felt sorry for student A. How embarrassed he must have felt. That, as I have been taught and take to heart, since I have seen it in action, is a big NO. You NEVER single out a student in this way. Especially when it means complete embarrassment.

Student A made not a peep after that and appeared to be taking copious notes, but I am certain he was teeming inside. Ms. L. had every right to move him, but she should have stopped there. She won. There was no point (and in fact it hindered her position) in embarrassing him. Maybe it was her way of making up for the fact that she didn't take care of the problem before it started (the problem being his attitude more than his disruptions), her way of showing him she is in charge and she can hurt him if necessary. I don't know. I didn't ask her, and I wasn't about to question her methods in her classroom. But I thought it was horrible.