Lesson 10: Further Notes on Discipline

EDUC 4291

Student Teaching

Some further reflections on classroom discipline...

As your student teaching experience and the academic year near completion, you will
discover your students
increasingly "testing" and "challenging" your
classroom authority. Much of this is naturalit's the "nature of
the
beast"and needs to be dealt with calmly, efficiently, and effectively. For
any teacher, this natural tendency
on the students' part requires vigilance if only
because classroom discipline, civil decency, and common
morality provide the solid
foundation for teaching and learning.
Perhaps you've
noticed that some students, especially when they don't get their way and discover that you
aren't
their friend, have snide ways to psychologically abuse teachers who don't give
students their way. During a
quiz, a bothersome student will tap his foot on the floor,
creating a distraction. Then, when you ask the
offending student to stop this
behavior, others start tapping their feet. Some students increasingly will use foul
language and, when you correct them, give you a look like you are a three-headed Hydra,
suggesting that you
crawl back into your cave.Or, perhaps, some student will express
utter disdain and contempt for you by not
recognizing your presence or, even, whisking
past you and mumbling under her breath almost inaudibly "I hate
you." You may
also find yourself having to respond an increasing amount of idle classroom chatter and,
immediately after correcting one offender, another student starts chattering, pretending
that he didn't hear you.
Another student will assail you publicly for denying her .2% of
her due on a quiz or exam, not only causing a
distraction but also drawing you in a losing
debate about your lack of fairness that now threatens to draw other
students into the
fray. Perhaps, too, a group of students will try to distract you, calling you by
your first name
rather than by an appropriate title of respect.
New teachers find student misbehavior discouraging because their
idealism comes crashing down to earth as new
teachers suddenly recognize that they may
have to do something formerly considered reprehensible, namely,
disciplining students and
issuing detentions.
To confront this reality, rather than dealing impersonally with
offenders, new teachers oftentimes will first try to
mollify their dislike for having to
mete out punishments. These teacher try a more personal alternative: offering
offenders
the opportunity to "visit" or "chat" before or after school. The hope
is, of course, to talk some sense
into students rather than sending offenders to the
penalty box. The underlying rationale is that "reasoning" with
students is far
preferable to "punishing" them and will promote greater student maturity and
good relations
because the offending students will genuinely appreciate the teacher's care
and personal efforts on their behalf.
Then, following a visit and chat, it is believed
that classroom order will be quickly restored because one has
appealed to the students'
better sensibilities.

Whose classroom is it anyway?

After several weeks of teaching, some student teachers falsely
believe that much student misbehavior has to do
with the fact that the students are taking
advantage of one's lack of professional experience.This rationale
implies that
student teachers present a prime "target" for students to play the game they
love to play..."best the
teacher." But, student teachers fail to
recognize, these are the very games students will play with any teacher
until that
individual decides that the students are guests "in my classroom."
That's the challenge...and it is not an
unusual challenge. At this time of year, even good
teachers have to deal with similar challenges. But, they know
how to deal with any
challenge to authority swiftly, immediately, and effectively.

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Lesson 10: Further Notes on Discipline

The key here has to do with what student teachers really expect
of their students. That is, does one want to be
respected or liked? Publicly, many
student teachers will assert the former but, in the secret recesses of their
hearts, they
really want the latter.
It is important to note that one's motive should not necessarily
or exclusively be to develop effective classroom
discipline but also, and perhaps more
truly, to have good, positive relationships with one's students. Now,
there's
nothing wrong with this desire because it is, as Maslow describes it, a "prepotent
need to self esteem."
Everyone wants to be liked by others and to belong to a
group and, in the case of student teachers, to be liked by
their students and to feel that
one belongs to the community of the classroom. But, when students misbehave,
student
teachers typically are prone to believe that their students won't like them if they assert
their rightful
authority.And here's the giveaway: student teachers feel twinges of
guilt when they give detentions.
Threats to classroom discipline, civil decency, and common
morality point to immaturity on the students' part
and their need for further growth. For
a student teacher to overlook this fact is to unwittingly reduce teaching
youth to
instructing them and to overlook the importance of the moral formation that good teachers
provide their
students.
For example, the .2 point difference might not mean much to the
teacher but you can be sure it is to this student
and to everyone else she is going to
tell her story to. It is sort of interesting, though again not unusual, that she is

arguing for a "by the book, no nonsense, computation" (that is, that there is a
black and white with no shades of
gray) and that the teacher "owes" her (which,
by the way the teacher does for making a mistake in correcting the
student's paper).
More importantly, however, this teacher owes the student a lesson in civility, that is, how
she
is to respond to situations where she believes that she has been the victim of an
injustice. She needs to learn that
there are more appropriate and less appropriate ways to
respond to such challenges. It is her attitude not the
number of points that is the
pedagogical issue. These are the lessons that teachers cannot and must not overlook.
At this early point in your teaching experience, there are
several learnings to note:
1. Develop a thicker skin...you don't need your students to like you.
Your goal is to lead them to respect you
and one another.
2. Develop a coherent understanding about teenagers and their
psycho-social and moral needs. You have
standards and stand for something...not everything.
3. Learn to confront tricky situations when you first sense that
something's awry and before they turn into
difficult situations that verge on spinning out
of control.
4. Hone the capacity to diagnose what is a "real" threat to
your authority and what is just momentary
"weirdness."
5. Develop an array of tactics for dealing with student misbehavior.
All of these things take time to learn and, perhaps, it might be
good for you to consider taking a good course in
adolescent psychology and some workshops
(or reading some good books) in the area of effective discipline.
You might also ask some
of the other faculty members (who are effective classroom disciplinarians) how they
learned what they learned...by telling them about the problems you are having. You'll find
many are very willing
and even interested in helping you.

The reality is that students need discipline...

Teenagers need some restraints and direction. In the short run,
they will grumble about classroom and school
discipline but, in the long run, do
appreciate more those teachers who are serious than those who are more
interested in
treating students as if they are what they aren't, namely, peers. While the weather and the phase
of
the moon (a full moon on Friday means that school will be in an uproar and no school
sponsors a dance on the
evening of a full moon) do cause mood changes, good teachers
establish themselves as authority figures in their
classroom, even on the worst of days.
Students respect teachers who have high standards that are
constructed upon bedrock virtues. These students may
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Lesson 10: Further Notes on Discipline

not like "tough" teachers

during the short run because these teachers do not hesitate in meting out discipline.
But,
in the long run, students respect these teachers because they know these teachers are
just, honorable, and
fair. On the other hand, students do not respect teachers who want
their students to like them because the
students know that these teachers have no real
standards inculcate no bedrock virtues. Instead, their discipline is
arbitrary,
capricious, and unfair. In the long run, students will recognize how weak these teachers
really were.
To develop one's capacity to discipline effectively, student
teachers need to examine their motives closely.
Student misbehavior frequently indicates
that there's much more going on than a student teacher may realize at
first glance. But,
instead of letting student misbehavior be distractingto the point of stopping class and
taking
a student out into the hallway for a "private" (but very public)
discussionstudent teachers need to strategize
early on, as they notice these behavioral
"surges" becoming more noticeable, how to deal with these situations in
a
preemptory way. After the fact is too late, as you've already lost control. Then, student
teachers also need to
look at themselves and how they tend to deal with challenges to
their authority in the classroom. With a couple
of month's experience behind them, student
teachers need to ask: How do I look upon my students? What do I
expect of them? What should I
expect of them? How am I going to deal with this reality? These are the kinds of
questions
that good teachers have thought through very carefully and, for some, engaged in the
self-change that
is necessary to deal more effectively with their students.
Without a well-thought out and articulate understanding about why
student teachers are doing what they are
doing and unless student teachers
are able to communicate that effectively to their students, misbehavior will
increase.
Over time: a) student teachers will find themselves blaming their students for being
normal; b) these
student teachers will come to hate teaching because they have convinced
themselves that they cannot teach
uncontrollable kids; and, c) these student teachers turn
sour on the human race.
No teacher should feel comfortable with student misbehavior and
the fact is that all teachers must deal with
imperfect beings. Why should teachers expect
students to be perfect beings, laying impossible burdens upon
them? If students teachers
believe their students will be imperfect, this recognition will help student teachers to
cope better when their students exhibit imperfection. And, as student teachers cope
better, they are able to deal
with their students and their imperfections honestly,
forthrightly, and compassionately by providing a vision of a
life that can be theirs as
students cast away various imperfections and immaturities.
Student teachers might benefit by asking if the lack of comfort
they experience in dealing with student
misbehavior is primarily due to the desire not to
have to confront one's own imperfections, selfish wants, and
need to be the center of
undivided attention that is, in its origins, nothing other than narcissism.

For those who are student teaching in Catholic schools...

The vocation of the Catholic educator presents many challenges, some of which are
professional and others that
are moral.
Surely, educators
must manage their classrooms and buildings well, foster good and humane relationships with
one another and with their students, and endeavor to provide students the very best
educational program
possible. Of far greater significance, however, are the numerous moral
challenges. Educators must hone their
students ability to discern right from wrong,
to reinforce their capacity to will rightly and accept responsibility
for their decisions
and actions, as well as to eradicate any selfishness that places one's self-interest ahead
of the
common good.
All too often, though, it is easier for educators
to focus on the professional and to overlook the moral. For
example, highly respected,
expert educators will oftentimes speak about what they do in their classrooms and
schools.
But, they do so in much the same way that a pastor could describe what he does in terms of
the size of
the weekly collection, the number of masses celebrated, communions
distributed, or baptisms, weddings and
funerals performed. Or, were parents to describe
what they do in terms of the things they have given their
children over the years. My
point is: what educators do, as important as it is, is utterly devoid of meaning in
the

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Lesson 10: Further Notes on Discipline

timelessness of Gods eternity unless what educators do communicates something

more importantthe personal
why motivating educators to do what they do in the
first place.
This all too prevalent, functionalist approach to
educating youth, especially on the part of our nations most
respected educators,
motivated me to write The Vocation of the Catholic Educator (Jacobs, 1996). Firm in
the
belief that educating youth involves more than professionalism, I became alarmed as I
considered Webers The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930) in
which he prophetically argued that, when the ethos
shaping how people view their workplace
emphasizes what they do as an intermediate means to another end,
human beings unwittingly
imprison themselves in an "iron cage." For Weber, this metaphor depicts the maze
of
rules, regulations, and expectations that serve to redefine a vocation as a job, to
reduce a substantive purpose to
a functional role, and to displace our freedom to make
moral decisions with a calculative, rational plan to
achieve material ends, that is, to
sustain and increase ones net worth. Thus, workers do what they do, not as a
creative self-expression reflecting the most noble aspirations of the human community, but
as a means to get
more of what workers really want, the security and material comforts of
this world afforded by the acquisition of
wealth.
Restricted within this iron cage, educators
define their vocation in strictly contractual terms. These stipulations
encumber the
decision-making process, rendering educators incapable of ministering to their
students
intellectual and moral needs. In this line of work, there is littleif
anypassion to associate with ones
colleagues or to form an educational
community. Solace is found not in the midst of a vibrant community where
teachers,
administrators, students, and parents interact in ways that promote common purposes.
Instead, solace is
discovered in a classroom replete with closed windows and closed doors.
But, this is a suffocating environment
resembling the worst of all prison cells, namely,
that reserved for solitary confinement.
When educators unwittingly imprison themselves in
this iron cage, they allow their souls to be corrupted, that is,
the substantive purpose
that originally inspired women and men to sacrifice their lives in the service of youth is
superseded by the requirements of a functional role in a school system. Enslavement to the
stultifying routine
governed by nameless and faceless bureaucrats is fueled by the
unbridled desire to accumulate wealth and a
good pension, all in an effort to avoid any
hazard threatening to impede achieving that end. Educators
imprisoned within this iron
cage justify what they cannot do by sheepishly invoking the mantra, "I dont
wanna
make waves."
The functional view of teaching and administering
in schools so permeates schooling, I fear that what educators
do in their schools and
classrooms has become more important than the substantive reasonthe
why
motivating them to become educators in the first place. Unfortunately, many
educators know this sad fact all too
well, experiencing it each day. For these educators,
school is a workplace, not a community engaging in intimate
conversations with students
and colleagues about their identity and mission as people of God, what Pius XII
(1955)
reminded Catholic educators their schools and classrooms should be. The focus of class
preparation is
communicating knowledge and skills, all in an effort to insure the
impossible, namely, that every student
achieves above average on standardized tests. In
these schools, the focus is not upon the moral and intellectual
formation of human
beingscomprised of a mind, body, heart, and soulbut upon fulfilling the
mandates of an
impersonal and inflexible rules-oriented bureaucracy that, in the name of
educating youth, is really interested in
justifying and extending its own power. Likewise,
in schools where the substantive purpose for educating youth
is absent, principals are
preoccupied with solving organizational problems, perhaps worrying more about
building
maintenance and complying with district, state and federal mandates than about forming a
faculty that
shares a common purpose, communicating common values, and deliberating about
how best to provide for their
students moral and intellectual needs. In short, this
functional view of teaching and administering in schools
focuses upon their work not their
subject, namely, their students.
Perhaps this caricature provokes discomfort.
Perhaps you may want to object and argue that the caricature
portrays a harsh and
extremist, "either-or," "take it or leave it" worldview having no
relationship to the culture
shaping your school. And, for your students sakes, I
hope this caricature doesnt represent your schools culture
or you. But, to the
degree that this caricature does portray teachers and administrators who focus solely upon
what they do simply to fulfill the professional role expectations mandated by contracts,
this caricature serves as

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Lesson 10: Further Notes on Discipline

a helpful reminder that the failure to be mindful of our moral

responsibilities will manifest itself in an
unashamedly heartless professionalism that
places self-interest before the authentic needs of youth. In contrast,
mindfulness about
why educators do what they do provides the necessary antidote to remedy any conception of
professionalism vitiated of Christian personalism which allows educators to turn their
classrooms and schools
into instructional factories and intellectual sweatshops.
Were educators refocus how they conceive what
they do, that is, if educators were to focus more intently upon
the substantive purpose at
the heart of their work, the ideological iron cage constraining educators from enacting

their moral responsibilities would be shattered. For example, knowing and understanding
the patrimony of
Catholic educational thought preserved in Scripture and Church tradition
would provide a true vision possessing
all of the power necessary to liberate educators
from their iron cage and its concomitant ethos of heartless
professionalism. With the
structural manacles of this functionalist ideology brokenand here I quote from Pope

John Paul IIs speech to Catholic educators during his 1987 pastoral visit to the
United Stateseducators can
lead their classrooms and schools "as full partners
in the Churchs mission of educating the whole person and of
transmitting the good
news of salvation in Jesus Christ to successive generations of young Americans" (p.
280).
When Catholic educators are mindful of Scripture
and Church tradition as they go about deciding what they must
do individually and
collectively, they can infuse what they do with the more substantive theological purpose
motivating them to engage in educating youth, namely, to provide an integral formation for
living as Jesus
disciples (Congregation for Catholic Education, 1982). And, as all
of the tangible aspects of educating youth
reflect this substantive rationale, educators
can then appreciate what their vocation and its attendant work is truly
about. Again, to
quote the Holy Father, "For a Catholic educator, the Church should not be looked upon
merely
as an employer. The Church is the body of Christ, carrying on the mission of the
Redeemer, through history. It is
our privilege to share in that mission, to which we are
called by the grace of God and in which we are engaged
together" (1987, p.280).
The vocation of the Catholic educator, then, is
not only a summons to professionalism. It is alsoand more
substantivelya
privileged summons to share in the Churchs mission of evangelization. As a minister
of the
Gospel, an educators words and actions translate the theological virtues of
faith, hope, and love into concrete
educational practice in the name and place of parents
who entrust their children to these ministers of the Church.
Ultimately, then, when this
vocation, the why, is heralded by each and every educator, the what of
educating
youth, students recognize the Risen Lord teaching in their midst.

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