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Group Discipline QUESTION: I have been bothered by a trend in our school that I will call "whole group discipline." Whenever one child acts up (meaning fooling around, talking, being loud, or not listening) the teacher punishes the whole class by taking minutes away from their recess period or not allowing them to have a snack break. The teacher justifies this approach by telling the class that because they could not be quiet and follow class rules, they will have to miss one of their privileges. I understand that with group rules like this, discipline becomes easier. Instead of the teacher trying to figure out who started what misbehavior, the kids have to figure it out and pressure each other to behave properly for the sake of the whole class. What I don't understand is that the teacher doesn't even try to single out the child or children who are misbehaving and insist that they correct their behavior. Adopting blanket punishments makes the children who are not misbehaving feel bad, because they are punished for something they didn't do. My children are usually the ones who aren't misbehaving, and they come home upset, angry and frustrated about these blanket punishments. The only thing they learn from it, is that this teacher is not fair and the punishment is not fair. A lot of times they have something they have looked forward to, and then it is taken away from them when they didn't do anything wrong. I realize one point of this type of discipline is that peer pressure will make the bad kids behave. But this only works if the misbehaver wants the reward, too. My kids tell me that the bad kids usually don't care about the reward, and they certainly don't care what the other kids feel about them. In fact, for the few kids who are bad (it is usually the same few) this type of punishment only makes the other kids dislike them more. Then the good kids are meaner to the bad kids, making the bad kids feel worse and even more determined to make trouble. In my experience, I have never seen this approach work well, and I wonder what message it is sending to my kids. It is hard to defend this to them, because I feel it is "not fair" when they are trying to be good and then lose privileges. Teachers often grade classes like gym and music by how the kids act as a whole, too. If they are all good they get high points. What's the problem with this? If just one child is a troublemaker, the whole class gets a low score and then gets fewer rewards. I would like to know if you are familiar with this and what your feelings are about it. How is this going to affect my children? I know they have to learn that the world is not always fair, but they are also feeling that being good doesn't really matter, if one kid can mess it up for them. ANSWER: Classroom management is a complex subject, explored in dozens of excellent books on the subject (see list below). One choice among many techniques is discipline of the whole group as a way to bring peer pressure on the group to conform to class rules. This is only one of many options, however, and should not be the only approach a teacher chooses. It's most appropriate, in my view, to fit the response to the offense – this is what is called the "logical consequences approach." For example, if one child continuously interrupts others during a group discussion, it sometimes works wonders to give that child an opportunity to LEAD a group discussion. Having that responsibility immediately helps him or her see how important it is to involve everyone or the group's attention wanders. Another approach I like is one called "restitution." In this approach, the teacher helps mediate conversation between or among students in conflict to find a way to make things right again. For example, if one child has broken something belonging to another, the balance can be brought back to neutral between them if the child who broke the item replaces it or in some other way, "rights the wrong." In this approach, the goal is to resolve a problem, so that no residual hard feelings remain. Disciplining a whole group for the misbehavior of one person in the group could be viewed as lazy on the teacher's part, especially if this is the primary method of discipline used. It gives the impression to the students that the teacher isn't interested in taking the time to determine who is acting out and how to deal with one or a few students directly. Sometimes it's impossible to figure out exactly what's going on and who started what, so I can understand group punishment in some instances, but not as a general approach. I don't know what the long term impact of group discipline will be on the children who are trying to follow the rules. Such an approach is likely to feed a feeling of adult unfairness and lack of consideration for students' feelings. My observation from working in several different schools is that most teachers try to sort things out and hold individual students accountable for their behavior. If the problem persists, I suggest that you arrange a conference with the teacher who practices group discipline (to a fault) and discuss your concerns with him or her. It might clarify things for you and give the teacher some food for thought at the same time. BOOKS:
LINKS: *** Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net. Previous columns are available. | |||||||
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