Beliefs on discipline An Artifact for Standard #5
Introduction The men and women who surround a child in their development to see them grow are entrusted with many a responsibility, but whether or not they are the child's parents, teachers, mentors, or clergy, a common theme bonds all these adults together: they are all contributing to the discipline of our next generation's citizens. It is not only the one child they associate with that is impacted by the rigor of discipline, but the network of friends and acquaintances that the child builds will also benefit from an adult's care and concern. In this artifact, I wish to show by way of example, how I believe key principles of discipline can be reinforced in the classroom. As teachers, I believe that we do not exist to teach discipline, but to encourage and reinforce it. This may be strange, since it contradicts our titles, but it is well known that students do not learn when we feed them information, but rather, when we lead by example. That being said, I do not believe I am a perfect example. In fact, find a man or woman who is of perfect integrity, and I shall give them the responsibility of discipline to the students I teach. However, we can do our best as educators to set the next generation up with not only a standard of behavior, but one of kind etiquette and politeness. As Wright, O'Hair, and Alley (1988) remind us, "Teacher preparation programs may help reduce high levels of stress associated with discipline experienced by student teachers" (87). It is not the “may� part of the sentence above that leaves little assurance with me, but rather, that the reality is that high levels of stress are only reduced, not removed from the classroom. Indeed, we do like to joke that the High School Assessments, known as HSA’s, also form the same acronym for High Stress Atmosphere. Its akin to the stress put on a police officer who has to control a situation or else he will be controlled, except that we are not in utter lawlessness but yet that is compensated with our environment being run by thirty hormone-filled teenagers. I documented these values of discipline because my values in prioritizing discipline transformed from the beginning of student teaching, to this moment. In short, I would say that I am more moderate on discipline, but still rather conservative to ensure that all my students face the same chance of learning in an undistracted classroom.
The Value of Discipline Discipline is both a verb and a noun—we must not only practice it, but also be a product of it. This is obviously seen in nations such as Singapore and Taiwan, whose adult male populations have had a dose of military discipline and are able to move into other areas of life with a sense of character. Likewise, I hope for all my students to undergo some time in their lives one day when their skills and character are tested. I also hope that they will survive those testing times strongly and wisely. But what shall we do before these students have that opportunity to demonstrate their strength of discipline? Are we, as teachers, entrusted to the equipping and development of these students’ etiquette and self-conduct? Surely we can not parent the children—that is the role of a parent, and even being in loco parentis does not allow us to force on a child’s behavior. Just as the Supreme Court ruled that teachers cannot force a child to render a salute to the American flag, then so we cannot force good behavior into children. But as teachers, we are entrusted to the upholding and encouragement of such good behaviors. We are to condone what is good and oppose what is evil. We are public servants, opposing drug abuse with hopefully the same spirit of the police force who are also public servants—both the teacher and police officer oppose drug use for the betterment of a community. That is but one example that exists for us to challenge the use of discipline in the classroom. Perhaps a larger question to ask is whether or not it is only limited to the classroom that a teacher may enforce disciplinary procedures. While some schools have their own set of standardized rules, each teacher is unique in their way of acting upon those rules or influencing them. Our answer cannot be limited within even the confines of a school, for we must remember that our intent is for every child to pass through the school and go onto other walks of life. I often ask myself, “What would this child be like if I met him/her at the mall with his/her parents?” Some kids who mention going to church together also have me interested in what it would be like for them to be in the same church community together too. What are their values? What do they hold dear in other people? What do they expect their teacher to do with those values? Perhaps I had best turn to former President and educational theorist Thomas Jefferson for these questions. In 1814, he penned this; “every citizen needs an education proportional to the condition and the pursuits of his life”. Such is the value of discipline: every citizen needs a base amount of it, but not every child will need to be held to the strictest standards. Under artifact seven, two seniors are examined from the AP Statistics class: Jacob Boross and Lauren Becker, both of whom are very different in personality traits and also their need for discipline. While Lauren loves the world of fashion, Jacob is vying for a spot in the Coast Guard Aviation wing. Obviously, Jacob is in need of an education in discipline proportional to his pursuit of the sky, while Lauren will have fine etiquette and ethics demanded of her. Whatever the case, I do believe that we value a baseline of allowing children to conduct themselves in such a manner that others will desire to interact with them. It prides me to be student teaching at B-CC, a school where they are thrilled to send students out into the local business district for lunch each day because their social conduct is not only adequate, but beneficial to the community. Criticism falls upon deeds Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger President Theodore Roosevelt, from the Man in the Arena, 1894
I cannot deny that a teacher is a critic, but moreover, a teacher is better than a critic. The feedback we give, whether it is verbally or via body language, exerts a huge amount of influence on the rapport we build between the students and ourselves. While student teaching, I also took up a SCUBA course at American University, led by a number of instructors—the principal one being Michael J. Gurevitz, a former US Navy officer and currently a professor at Montgomery College. We called him Professor in the classroom, or “sir”, and he commanded a great deal of respect because ultimately, this would be the guy that would teach us everything in order for us to stay alive underwater. He was tough and most students thought that he taught with frustration and malice, but in the end, the volume and brevity of his words were for our benefit. In a loud voice, he would announce, “Now if you do hold your breath, then that is a great way to die!” Much to our terror, nobody wanted to picture themselves dying, and eventually most of us likened Michael's way of teaching. However, there were a few doubters who were not certain that Michael liked them as students. They were often the weaker swimmers and divers who might not have understood instructions the first time through, and Michael would periodically need to pull them from the water and drill them at the surface. By the time that we went to open water qualifications, only two of our dive team members felt “picked on” by the instructors, although they knew that they were not performing strongly. The rest of our group tried to convince them that the instructors yelled only because they were concerned about matters of life and death. Still, these soon-to-be-divers had the impression that the instructors were out there to get them. Eventually, they succumbed to appreciating Michael when, upon completing the underwater skills they needed to master, Michael gave a very firm underwater handshake while looking in the diver's eye, followed by a thumbs-up. Anybody can shake hands underwater. Anybody can give you a pound or a high five. Any sign of a thumbs-up boost your day, but the approval of an instructor is priceless! When these doubting divers surfaced, no more did they feel that Michael disliked them. They realized that Michael disliked their bad habits in diving and cared for their safety.
Dive Team BRAVO from American University, having completed a semester of nine dives in total, four of which were in the lake behind us. Michael is in the center, wearing a black t-shirt, grinning for his latest batch of divers!
It's been my privilege to live and testify to that while being in the same semester of student teaching. Sometimes, I do leave school thinking, “Boy, how annoying was (insert name here) today!” But when I think differently with, “Boy, how annoying was the chit-chat about Limewire today?”, that kind of question removes any chance of a personal vendetta, and instead replaces it with a deed that is to be disliked.
Just like Professor Gurevitz showed us, SCUBA is not about what kind of students you like—it is about how well you can perform your skills, and what needs to be done with other actions that will not help that endeavor. So too, it is the same with any other discipline: it is the sin that is scorned, not the student. Accountability on an individual basis Discipline works mainly on a psychological plane. The students may not understand the “why and how” of disciplinary actions and consequences, but they sure understand feeling left out, a lack of fairness, and injustice. Making sure that each student receives their due share is a tough judgment among many other decisions that are waiting to be made as a teacher. Sometimes, the event is too fast for us to even consider judging individuals independently. I’ve heard it said many times before, and seen it with my own eyes: “I didn’t see it happen so I can’t do anything about it”. That simple phrase is told to a disappointed child who was belittled or picked on by another student, and all they seek is justice. Let me correct that: one of the things that they seek is justice, but in some cases, revenge is not an unlikely motive. Sadly, a teacher’s best choice for choosing to abstain from making a judgment by only an eyewitness account can serve the cause of injustice, and poorly reflects on how our society values witnesses in the justice system. Most of the time though, I believe that we, as teachers, are alert enough to distribute the fairest amount of judgment to a particular subset of students who indeed need the consequential discipline. If not, we ought to be more aware of our surroundings—especially the parts of it that can change rapidly. Discipline by way of example “It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself.” President Theodore Roosevelt, Speech to the Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903 Finally, my belief in discipline can be summarized into that one simple line from President Roosevelt. As a teacher, we can teach discipline simply by living it. Arriving to class well beforehand emphasizes punctuality, and our students will learn from that. For the kinesthetic learners, they not only are able to do what they experience, but also what they observe others doing. Hypocrisy is perhaps one of my most hated attributes about human nature, and we are bound to practice it unconsciously at some point of our life. However, most of the time, we are perfectly conscious of when others are hypocrites! It was too simple to point fingers at school when I was a student and say, “Well, if Ms. Boon wants me to stop talking, why doesn't she stop rambling on?” Of course, by the time we factor in a child's thought process that might be missing some logical parts and the influence of raging hormones, our students still look up to us as adults. The goal is that they will look up to us as teachers too, then seek our mentorship. A rapport built up to have the teacher as a mentor to children is priceless, just like the underwater handshake, and discipline cannot be forced down a child's throat, just as respect cannot be given to the teacher that does so. Instead, in both cases, a child must earn their discipline, and so too, a teacher must earn his or her respect. Bibliography Wright, R., M. O'Hair and R. Alley (19 88). "Student Teachers Examine and Rate Classroom Discipline Factors: Help for the Supervisor," Action in Teacher Education , 10:2, 85-91.