“Which Rule is Too Tough,Your Majesty?” A Culture of Low Expectations
ByAnybody remember the brilliant movie ‘Amadeus’?
There’s a terrific scene where after a symphony concert one of Mozart’s rivals is trying to make him look bad, and tells the Emperor that the piece played had ‘too many notes’. Here is a link to the scene to get the full impact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCud8H7z7vU
Of course the suggestion is ridiculous, and at the end of the scene Mozart says, knowing full well the Emperor has no idea what he is talking about and is simply repeating what sounds good from his ‘authorities’: ”Which notes should I cut, your majesty?”
Which brings me to emails I get once in awhile, where a teacher employs Classroom Discipline 101 techniques, and things are going well and wild classrooms are finally coming to order, but a disgruntled student who can no longer disrupt the education going on complains to the administration.
You guessed it–admin tells the teacher the rules are ‘too tough’. Admin backs the student, parents back the student, disaster ensues.
Well, I have never had this problem personally, because there is nothing wrong with my rules, they are within the ed. code and my administrators have been very content knowing by some miracle students behave in my classes and they rarely have to deal with a student sent from my room. But, if this did happen, my first question to the parent and/or administrator would be:
“Which rules should I cut, your Majesty?” (Your Majesty is optional, not recommended actually).
You see, my experience is that when people stand on weak logical grounds they tend to keep things vague and general, and when forced to specify in this instance it will become clear that every rule has a solid rationale that facilitates learning, and none are ‘too tough.’
Unless, of course, you have low expectations for behavior. So if someone did pick out a specific rule, say, ‘students are to be on task at all times’, and say it was too ‘tough’, I would say, ‘Yes, if you have low expectations for student behavior’. Then point out the logical alternative: ”So, students should not be on task at all times. Okay, what should they be doing in class then exactly? How much time should I allow for goofing off, cell phone calls, computer games and desk throwing? After all, I don’t want to give the impression that we should be learning at all times.” Of course you don’t have to adopt my sarcasm, that’s just my style ’cause I find it fun. But you can get the point across firmly.
I have high expectations for students’behavior; no, I don’t babble about high expectations, I have them– and you should too–it’s good for you and for the students. It is not good for disruptive complainers and people that interfere with the educational process, so of course they will complain. Who comes first here, the disruptor or the disrupted?
Now, armed with this information, if it happens to you in the future, tell me specifically what rule is objected to, and we’ll take from there how exactly you might reply. The book explains the rationale for everything.
Here’s the thing gets me a bit miffed: none of these people complain that their lousy discipline methods are not working, that seems to be okay. It’s okay if students and teachers endure disruption and disrespect and inferior learning every day as long as the methods du jour handed down by theorists who couldn’t get a class under control if there life depended on it are employed. Sheesh.
It is important to understand that if you are at a public school the ed. code trumps administration, and if you are within your bounds they should not be telling you you cannot use my time-tested, effective, high-expectations rules.
Okay MPT’s, resist evil and let’s get on with our jobs–teaching.
Cheers,
Craig
I’m 29 and from South Africa. I am a new teacher.. this is my second year. I am having such a problem with discipline in my class. My school incorporates the Assertive Discipline system. Now to me there seem to be too many different discipline strategies. We’re not allowed to give our children detention on our own. They get sent to the deputy principle’s classroom for detention at break.. I feel that this takes away the authority from me. I feel at a loss as to what to do.
re: Rude parent who accused me (amongst other things) of being a nazi.
I was told by my deputy to forget this particular detention (as admin are gutless) but to carefully monitor him and to refer the problem to my Head of Dept (who is the master of the handball) if he plays up again so I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
The deputy (for him) was quite supportive over the whole incident and did not want me to do away with the consequences just avoid commiting them to paper. Which is fine by me as I can still carry on implementing everything you have advised. I will get round this by writing the consequences on the whiteboard.
I started on Monday had the glitch with the mental parent on Weds but by Friday I was winning and had the students working quietly with minimal fuss or rudeness and the boy in question kept a low profile. So your ideas are already paying dividends.
Cheers
JULIE H.
Dear Julie-
The short answer is this: I would not call this parent again, nor would i let her son back into my class until detention was served.
Rather than go on the defensive, I would tell your Principal you want this parent to apologize to you and the community for comparing bringing pencil and paper to class with carting innocent people in trains to their death at gunpoint.
Your rules will have no weight without consequences for breaking them, so without 11 and 12 you might as well not have them.
Dear Craig,
I started using your disciplie methods this week. On the third day (yesterday) I rang a parent to tell her her son had not attended detention and she told me she did not agree with my rules that they were Nazi-like and ridiculous and she had told hin not to attend my detention. She is also (amongst other things) threatening to report me to the Principal and the Education Authority. I showed the rules to the Deputy yesterday afternoon (the Principal wasn’t there) and asked him for his opinion and he could see nothing wrong with them apart from the fact that he disagreed with the copying of them as it seemed like a punishment and that I should do away with No: 11 and 12 (the consequences0 so I wasn’t accused of favouring one student over another one if I varied my response to the same type of behaviour.
Anyway what suggestions do you have about this parent who is undermining my authority? I have been told not to call her again, not that I would anyway as she attempted to give me a right roasting.
Regards Julie H.
Hallo Craig
I’m teaching gr 9 maths. I’m Afrikaans speaking. In our school we have more than 8 or 9 cultures. (Zulu’s, Xhosas, Indian, Afrikaans, English and so on) .
The school is double medium. All the Afrikaans speaking students of a grade is in Afrikaans classes and all the rest is in the English classes. You said you taught all ages, abilities and ethnic backgrounds.
Your book worked on all the Afrikaans (I am Afrikaans) classes. And it is great!! But as soon as the Zulu’s and Xhosas enter my classroom it is chaos. I am really doing everything in your book. Why is it working on al the Afrikaans classes but not on the English classes? I don’t know if anyone else has ever been in my situation?
“Don’t try to discipline the whole class all at once over and over. Once the class sees you can get the worst student to behave, your directions will have bite since they know what lies ahead if they are next.” I’ve copied this form a question you’ve answered.
But it really does not work! In my class of 40 students (English is not their or my mother language) there is more than 15 students a day that come to detention.
I always pick the worst student. I give him detention. I tell him what will happen if he disrupts my class again. I only discipline one student at a time! It is not working. No one thinks anything about what lies ahead if they are next. They all keep on talking, making comments laughing, making noises. As soon as I go to the next student telling him to stop disrupting my class the first student has already started to talk again. So I go back to the fist student asking him to please leave my class for disrupting the second time. And there he goes! This continues for almost the whole period until I have 15 students with detentions and all of them had to leave my class for disrupting again. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now! Am I doing something wrong? They always show up for detention, but it doesn’t seem to bother them. I worked through your book more than 3 times. Can it be that I’m to young and they don’t respect me or the fact that they speak their own language so that I can not understand?
I think I have a special situation or “sticking point” where I really need a little help over the hurdle. I have full faith that I WILL get over it, because I know that your book is real and it works!
Thanks again for all your support
Warm greetings
Elmien
Hi Elmien-
The rules are copyright and only you, who bought the book, have permission to use them legally. But in small cases I don’t mind. You should work with the other teachers to coordinate detentions, and have one or two teachers hold all the detentions for the day; in other words, you could have a list at the end of the day that is given to the teacher holding the detentions, and they take roll from that. If a student received a detention from more than one teacher that day, they will have to come the next day also or until all of their time is made up. Another option, depending on how many are given out, is just to have them come the next day to the other teachers and you will send them a note. You could also then consider moving into 30 minutes after school since the teacher may only stay once a week or whenever you take detention duty. Also have those teachers buy the
book! If everyone is using the same effective policies your learning environment at school will be a wonderful one!
Dear Craig
I’m a 24 year old teacher from South-Africa. I downloaded your book and read it right trough the night. Never in my life did I read something so interesting, helpful and real! I would easily pay more than R5000 for your book and I think its value is more than anyone can every imagine. Thank you very much for sharing it with us. It helped me to become a very happy and satisfy teacher. And I can boldly say I have the best job that exists thanks to your book!
However there is something that bothers me a bit!! Since other teachers saw how disciplined and quite my class was they asked for a copy of my rules. I refused to give it to them so they got it form the kids. Now all of them give 15 min detention. I do not have the power to give attention to anyone because as soon as I give someone detention their answer is that they already have to go to another teacher’s class for detention. I’m not sure how to handle this situation!
Regards Elmien
Good observation, yes, the maintenance could be construed that way, but you always reserve the right to give detention without warning. Though sitting up straight is a rule, it is not one that detracts from learning or disrupts the class in any way, so I usually give a redirect on very small issues (I may say ‘turn around and get to work’ rather than give a detention, so though it is a bit of a contradiction technically, it is something you can decide for yourself what takes the LEAST energy. You can feel when the class is in order and this is not going to negatively affect the atmosphere. Remember, the rules are there to achieve an effect and not the other way around. The tougher the class, the more I go by the letter of the law.
Craig,
I bought your book in March 2009. I have been considering leaving teaching. I am in my 9th year, and teach HS math at a school with most students placed in math classes where they have not learned the prerequisites.
I used the techniques and it saved me from quitting.
However, in your ebook you say to
“Start with the rules, no warnings after, and a consequence,
and everything will dramatically improve, fast. Remember the
broken window theory—don’t let small things go. After you’ve
gotten a quiet classroom, keep at the small things for
maintenance (turn around, Joe/get on task, Mary/Paul, you
need to be at a 90 degree angle to your desk, etc.)”
Isn’t the “maintenance” giving a warning with no consequence?
This is not the only place in your ebook that this apparent inconsistency, that is about holding students accountable every time with no reminders.
I have had the best three days of my career by following this book. I had two students who have detention, but that’s because I emphasized no warnings on behavior starting day 2. There is no trash on my floor, students are doing work. I think I will ask them to have their pencil or pen at the door. good idea.
Thanks! It has to work, it’s born of experience. You will find that if you continue not to give in this year, you will start to get a reputation with the students as well and won’t be tried as often or long. Have a great year!
Craig,
Once again I want to thank you. You are the MAN!
2008-2009 school year I followed “YOUR RULES” as my classroom rules,and I had a much better year than I normally would have.
My students had much better behavior as compared to previous years. Some students did have much better behavior after the consequences for quite a long time. But there are always those 3-to-5 students who continue to misbehave.
I house-billed three of the five students. Housebilling means they were out of my classroom for good. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. In fact I still find it stressful. First I have to complete a bunch of papers with proof of “incidents”. Second the AP or the P tries to make you feel guilty or infer you are a bad teacher. I didn’t buckle or give way. Then there is the meeting with the principal and the parents where the student promises he will never misbehave. I didn’t go for that either. The previous year I gave way to the pressure of these required meetings.
One of the students was surprised. In fact every time I saw him, he got a sad look on his face. Of couse he was in summer school because he failed too many classes. In summer school his comment was “I can’t believe you kicked me out of your classroom.”
There are always things I need to improve. This year I plan to act quickly in kicking these students out-like October- instead of February.
I had a great response with how students should enter the classroom. I think I was one of the few teachers who required each student to say “Good morning, Mrs. ____ my name is ___ and I also required each student to have a sharpened pencil in their hand before they could enter my classroom. I found that strategy effective! My classroom began on a positive note as opposed to my nagging”I can’t believe you don’t have a pencil,etc.” I didn’t have to make a list of names and worry about getting the loaned pencils returned at the end of class. I didn’t have to take a student’s smelly shoe in place of the pencil I gave the student. I never had to hear the pencil sharpener or find shavings all over the floor.
This year I am thinking of requiring three sharpened pencils and a pen before entering my classroom.
Thanks again! Your schtick isn’t baloney. It really works. You are not hocking us to buy this and that every single minute unlike other discipline gurus.
brazosb257@aol.com