Classroom Discipline Manipulation Scenario #1
ByTeacher: Move your seat to over here, Katrina.
Student: But why? I wasn’t even doing anything!
The teacher now has the option of addressing what the student said, which is a manipulation tactic to draw the teacher into their world and continue a useless argument, or to keep the student in the teacher’s frame, and bring the student into the reality of the classroom. Always choose the latter, and continue in this way:
Teacher: You have 10 seconds to be seated where I told you, or you will come to detention after school and/or face the prospect of suspension from my class for defiance.
Student: (continuing) But why? Why won’t you tell me what I was doing?
At this point the detention and or suspension should be given. There is no reason to engage students in these manipulative discussions–you must speak with actions.
It is a little difficult to explain how this can all be done without the overall context of classroom management, but the short of it is, never engage students in manipulative discussions–return them to the reality of the rules you have set and the classroom management plan YOU have devised.
Good stuff, I love it. Without discipline in the classroom no learning takes place. And, I believe obedience takes place when there is a conforming response to the first command, not the second, etc. We live in a world, however, that is living in the realm of rebellion.