Some Thoughts on Discipline

By Jim Flowers

Discipline is one of the major concerns of teachers, parents, and school administrators. The Phi Delta Kappan annual survey still shows discipline as a major concern of parents. However, the discipline problems that they identify have changed from "chewing gum" and "running in the hallways" in the 1960s to "weapons in the schools" and "drug problems" in recent years. The level of the problem is obviously increasing. Despite the news media and the isolated problems that are reported, this writer has observed very few situations in the past ten years in which he felt the students would not follow procedures established by the teacher—as long as the students felt the teachers would enforce the rules they established.

If teachers can manage the discipline in their classrooms, not only will their professional lives be improved, they will also eliminate one of the major concerns of their school administrators. Let’s face it—no principal or assistant principle wants to handle a teacher’s discipline problems. The expectation is that the teacher will handle as much of the classroom discipline as possible, and administrators will become involved as a last resort.

If there was an easy answer to the problem of maintaining discipline, we would not have a discipline problem in the schools today. The fact is there is no easy answer because we are dealing with people—individuals who respond differently to different situations or teachers. There is also the social situation in which some parents have chosen to shift the responsibility to discipline for their children from the home to the schools, making it more difficult for teachers. Regardless of the complexity of the situation or the social factors that compound the complexity of the problem, the fact remains that some teachers seem to be able to establish good discipline in their classrooms—and some do not. Hopefully, this lesson will help you establish some of the basics in discipline that will guide you toward being one of those teachers who do not experience major discipline problems in their classes.

Notice that the effort is toward reducing discipline problems, not toward total elimination of discipline problems. Regardless of what they may lead you to believe, all teachers experience discipline problems from time to time. According to Jere Brophy (who has written extensively on effective teaching), the difference is that some teachers don’t experience the problem very often and when they do, it is handled as a matter of routine. For these teachers, discipline problems do not disrupt their classes to a major extent. Related to this is the myth that if you do a good job of planning lessons, you won’t experience discipline problems. THIS IS NOT TRUE! While good planning and good delivery of instruction can REDUCE discipline problems, good teaching will not eliminate all problems. Careful planning can reduce the amount of time that students are free to create problems—and we all know that if you do not plan something for students to do, they will do something. Unfortunately, what they find to do may not be what you want them to do. So, at best we can say that careful planning will help reduce discipline problems.

As you read the information in the lesson related to discipline, you have to determine whether this approach will work for you. As you will see, there are a variety of approaches that one might take to discipline. The bottom line is that if you read something that you feel will not work for you, DON’T USE IT! There are also several techniques that will be suggested. If you think the technique is not good or that it doesn’t fit you, DON’T USE IT! There are always other options. Inasmuch as you school system allows, you should use the things that will work for you. Having said that, sometimes it is useful to try new approaches—especially if what you are currently doing is not working.

One of the reasons that there is no prescription for universally dealing with discipline problems is the wide diversity of local school policies relating to what teachers can and cannot do in the area of discipline. As a result, each teacher must develop a discipline plan. The best advice is to know your school policies. Then, establish your own policies that fit within the framework of the school policies. Once you have established how you wish to operate your classroom, a local administrator (principal or assistant principal) who is responsible for discipline should approve your discipline plan.

The key element is to have a plan! But that is not enough. The best plan ever developed is useless unless you follow it consistently. The students will test your plan. Essentially, they are testing whether you mean what you say. If they feel that you do not mean what you say, they will take advantage of the situation. The result is that the students will misbehave to the point that you cannot take it any longer. The tendency is to explode at that point, leaving the student to wonder what they did this time to cause your reaction. Essentially, what you are doing is playing a game called "I’m going to get you. . . It’s up to you to figure out when." This is a very dangerous game because by the time you react, you have become a hostile teacher and that usually elicits a hostile response.

Hopefully, this lesson will help you determine how you develop your plan for discipline in a classroom.