More What Do I Do When...?. Allen N.. Mendler
who has quit for that reason. MORE What Do I Do When … ? Powerful Strategies to Promote Positive Behavior addresses the need for strategies to effectively handle challenging students.
Several years ago, Rick Curwin and I wrote Discipline With Dignity (Curwin & Mendler, 1988, 1999), which set forth an approach to school and classroom discipline focusing on personal responsibility and shared community as the foundation upon which all successful strategies reside. The revised 1999 edition of our book reaffirmed its present relevance, despite the passage of years. Our goal was to provide educators with the information needed to deal both effectively and humanely with children, while showing how enhancing and preserving a child’s dignity along with providing a sense of hope are always essential. We highlighted the differences between methods of obedience with those of responsibility; illustrated the power of eliciting good behavior through increased student involvement; showed the relationships among stress, motivation, teaching methods, and discipline problems; and offered alternatives to lose-lose power struggles.
In 1992, I wrote What Do I Do When … ? How to Achieve Discipline With Dignity in the Classroom, emphasizing that an understanding of the basic needs that drive student misbehavior is a key to identifying effective strategies of prevention and intervention. Our book, As Tough as Necessary: A Discipline With Dignity Approach to Countering Aggression, Hostility, and Violence (Curwin & Mendler, 1997) provides strategies for interacting effectively with students who are hostile, aggressive, or violent. Discipline With Dignity for Challenging Youth (Mendler & Curwin, 1999, 2007) shows how to effectively work with especially difficult youth. All of these comprehensive texts present and discuss the many facets of in-school and out-of-school life that converge to create discipline problems. In addition, these books offer the framework that serves as the foundation upon which schools and classroom teachers can develop all-inclusive discipline programs that work. The reception among educators to our efforts has been phenomenally uplifting while simultaneously humbling. The daily testimonials of appreciation we hear from fellow educators who thank us for “all we have done” resonate against the backdrop of all that still needs to be done. Evans (2002) recently reminded us that “what has changed over the last thirty years is not the skills of our teachers but rather the lives of our students.”
We are all extremely busy, and there are too many demands placed upon us (some of them ridiculous). As educators, we are expected to meet the academic needs of behaviorally diverse students, many lacking parental nurturance, some without a roof over their heads, and more than a few wearing labels and acronyms such as oppositional defiant, attention-deficit, autistic, EBD (emotional-behavior disorder), LD (learning disability), SBD (severe behavior disorder), and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). These students present instructional and behavioral challenges never before tolerated in mainstream school settings. Therefore, as educators we can continue to do what we have always done and hope that somehow things will get better, or we can adapt with the times and implement strategies in our classrooms that are likely to get better results. The very essence of MORE What Do I Do When … ? Powerful Strategies to Promote Positive Behavior is an ample supply of strategies for handling a wide variety of challenging situations that virtually every educator will face. This book provides proven ways for dealing effectively with misbehavior, while focusing on ways to meet the daunting task of creating and sustaining an effective learning climate that promotes positive behavior.
The primary goal is to offer educators who are pressed for time a practical, easy-to-read book of specific strategies that offers resource methods of prevention and intervention. MORE What Do I Do When … ? is a hybrid resource in that it presents some of the most effective strategies first identified in What Do I Do When … ? and our other books, along with new approaches that have been shared and developed by many educators throughout the country. Although there is no substitute for comprehensive, theoretically sound texts that also offer practical advice, this book of tips is designed to give busy educators many specific methods that motivate students and prevent discipline problems from happening and effective interventions that stop misbehavior while preserving everyone’s dignity.
EIGHT UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES
Eight basic principles and beliefs are at the core of good methods of discipline. Discipline With Dignity prides itself on being a philosophy that can cultivate a lot of different strategies. Not all strategies work for all people because the personality and style of the person using the strategy will determine its effectiveness—at least as much as the strategy itself. Two teachers can use the same words to tell a student to sit down and have very different results. While strategies may need to vary, the basic elements that underlie all strategies can serve as a framework for all educators. Just as we know that nutrients and water are necessities for all living things to grow and flourish, there are certain ingredients that all good methods of discipline must have in order to succeed. Although MORE What Do I Do When … ? is a hands-on, practical guide of tips to help with a variety of school behavior problems, we begin with the following eight principles that form the foundation for the strategies in this book.
Principle 1: Discipline Is Everyone’s Job
I have attended several suspension hearings in my career. Although a viable alternative to suspension may not always be feasible, every time a student is suspended the school gives up all control over that student’s whereabouts and behavior. Because we are all busy, it may be easy for us to dismiss the student’s absence as “not our problem.” In fact, many of us feel relieved that the student’s absence has reduced our level of stress. But if the suspended student is not in school, there is a very good chance that he is out in the community idling the time away. What was a school problem can quickly become a community problem. Even worse, we could become a target if the student decides to fill vacant time by breaking into unoccupied homes. Certainly, the student expelled from my school knows where I am during the day, making my house an easy target.
There is no question that at least 70 to 80% of school disciplinary problems have their roots in factors outside of school. Certainly student behavior in school would improve immensely if more parents did their jobs properly, if poverty vanished, if drugs were eradicated, and if violence disappeared. As educators, our voice accounts for no more than 20 to 30% of what kids hear and understand. It is imperative that all adults in the school community see themselves as players in the process of influencing change. As educators, we need to feel confident and empowered in our skills to handle inappropriate behavior. We are all stakeholders when it comes to the effects of student behavior.
Principle 2: Good Discipline Is About Teaching Better Behavior, Not Just Offering “Quick Fixes”
Effective, long-term resolution of disciplinary problems takes time. Although it is understandable to want a quick fix, misbehaving students are telling us that something important in their lives is keeping them from being fully with us. For some, it is their belief that they are too stupid to succeed, while others know no way other than to bully in order to feel in charge. Some act out to mask depression, while others seek affiliation, attention, or recognition. Essentially, kids who misbehave are telling us that their basic needs are not being met. Although we need to have specific, short-term strategies to handle inappropriate behavior, good discipline is linked to our understanding of the motives that drive students to act inappropriately and the solutions that address these basic needs. When students behave badly, we need to ask ourselves why they find it more preferable to act inappropriately. In essence, students need to feel connected, competent, and influential. If they do not, they are likely to respond with maladaptive behavior. Attention-seekers generally have an overriding need to belong and be viewed as important by others. Students who do not believe they are capable either give up on school and act unmotivated or misbehave when required to do something that they view as overwhelming. Students who are aggressive or disrespectful are usually trying to influence the world around them. In order to teach better behavior, one needs to factor in the motives that drive poor behavior. As Glasser (1986) noted, discipline problems are resolved when schools become “needs-satisfying” places. Many strategies can help us achieve this goal.
Principle 3: The Relationships We Have With Students Are Inextricably