Behavior Modification

Over on Like Horses to Water, a first-year teacher of English has a post about discipline that caught my eye. In “Thoughts on Discipline #1: Why is discipline so difficult?” the author has captured one of the ideas that I express every semester.

“Classroom management” is one of the biggest challenges for all teachers, and one of the most difficult for us to get help with. In this blog I’ll be harping endlessly on the intensely personal and individualistic nature of teaching, and classroom management is one of the most personal parts of teaching.

It’s harder for new teachers since most of us still have our idealism, and are naturally not mean people. We’re going to win them over with love, we tell ourselves. We will treat them like mature and responsible young people, and they will rise to meet our high expectations. All together now: awwwwwwww…

That’s a noble and worthwhile approach, but it is insufficient. The author goes on to explain that this is an unrealistic view. I’m sure I disagree with some of the other points made in other posts, but there’s a lot of first-person observations that are worth reading in Like Horses to Water.

Link to “Thoughts on Discipline #1….”