3 Aspects to Consider Before Delivering a Disciplinary Ultimatum
This post is for January 8. To understand why that matters, I hope you will read my post from January 1. You can find it by clicking here: https://goo.gl/fi3gyz
If you are an educator, it is highly likely that you have “set some limits” responding to escalating misbehavior in the classroom. For instance, if “Johnny” refused to do his work, you may have helped him understand that he would have to eat his lunch with you - working on the assignment - if he couldn’t use class time to do so. Clarifying a consequence so another individual has an opportunity to choose to comply (or not) is setting a limit...and if you’re like me, you have learned a thing or two about setting limits as your career has progressed. There have been times when a student’s misbehavior or non-compliance has caused me to dedicate my time before or after school to enforcing a consequence. Similarly, I have found myself spending time before or after school with colleagues who have failed to do their work independently. Other times, I have been called out by parents for attempting to enforce a consequence that may not have been reasonable. One particularly embarrassing memory comes to mind:
When I was a second year journalism teacher, some students were not taking the class seriously. Some were doing things to damage our publication (a newspaper) rather than helping it by adding inappropriate lines to stories that were ready for print and other such things; others were simply not doing anything at all, leaving others to scramble and do their work for them when the deadline loomed. Conveniently, I had a computer lab that was adjacent to my classroom, and my students were typically able to move from the classroom to the computer lab, as needed, to complete assignments. So, when the damaging acts continued, I threatened to send the students to “AAA.”
In my mind, this made a lot of sense. It was called AAA because I was demoting them to the minors. When a major league baseball player isn’t cutting it with the big club, he gets sent to AAA where he can work on his skills. So, I sent my students to the other classroom to work on their skills and to make their own newspaper. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea that created a great amount of division among the students, let alone division from me as a teacher. I still helped them when they asked for assistance, of course, and they still participated in lessons. However, they were determined to create a newspaper without the help of the guy who sent them to AAA. And for what it’s worth, they did create something formidable! Their newfound determination might have been the only positive that came out of this act.
However, my demotions certainly came with consequences, as I fielded multiple parent phone calls wondering how long I planned to carry out this consequence. These were kids, after all...and they were going home and sad and hurt because of this consequence. The consequence I used could have been much simpler (schools have disciplinary consequences written into their policies for instances like this), and the consequence could have been more reasonable (and less permanently divisive). In the end, it wasn’t really even an enforceable limit because parents demanded that I allow their children back into its home classroom...which makes perfect sense, unless you’re 21 years old and cocky (which I was).
When you work in any human service industry, it is impossible to predict what other humans will do. A school can have a book full of actions and consequences, but students frequently find ways to think outside the box and do something the book hasn’t accounted for yet. When this happens, remember my example, and do the exact opposite. Take a step back and consider setting a simple, reasonable, and enforceable limit. Doing so will save you from wasting time and from some not-so-fun consequences with those you aim to serve.
For more information on setting limits, I encourage you to consider trainings by the Crisis Prevention Institute. Pieces of their training modules focus on setting simple, reasonable, and enforceable limits.
If you are an educator, it is highly likely that you have “set some limits” responding to escalating misbehavior in the classroom. For instance, if “Johnny” refused to do his work, you may have helped him understand that he would have to eat his lunch with you - working on the assignment - if he couldn’t use class time to do so. Clarifying a consequence so another individual has an opportunity to choose to comply (or not) is setting a limit...and if you’re like me, you have learned a thing or two about setting limits as your career has progressed. There have been times when a student’s misbehavior or non-compliance has caused me to dedicate my time before or after school to enforcing a consequence. Similarly, I have found myself spending time before or after school with colleagues who have failed to do their work independently. Other times, I have been called out by parents for attempting to enforce a consequence that may not have been reasonable. One particularly embarrassing memory comes to mind:
When I was a second year journalism teacher, some students were not taking the class seriously. Some were doing things to damage our publication (a newspaper) rather than helping it by adding inappropriate lines to stories that were ready for print and other such things; others were simply not doing anything at all, leaving others to scramble and do their work for them when the deadline loomed. Conveniently, I had a computer lab that was adjacent to my classroom, and my students were typically able to move from the classroom to the computer lab, as needed, to complete assignments. So, when the damaging acts continued, I threatened to send the students to “AAA.”
In my mind, this made a lot of sense. It was called AAA because I was demoting them to the minors. When a major league baseball player isn’t cutting it with the big club, he gets sent to AAA where he can work on his skills. So, I sent my students to the other classroom to work on their skills and to make their own newspaper. In hindsight, it was a terrible idea that created a great amount of division among the students, let alone division from me as a teacher. I still helped them when they asked for assistance, of course, and they still participated in lessons. However, they were determined to create a newspaper without the help of the guy who sent them to AAA. And for what it’s worth, they did create something formidable! Their newfound determination might have been the only positive that came out of this act.
However, my demotions certainly came with consequences, as I fielded multiple parent phone calls wondering how long I planned to carry out this consequence. These were kids, after all...and they were going home and sad and hurt because of this consequence. The consequence I used could have been much simpler (schools have disciplinary consequences written into their policies for instances like this), and the consequence could have been more reasonable (and less permanently divisive). In the end, it wasn’t really even an enforceable limit because parents demanded that I allow their children back into its home classroom...which makes perfect sense, unless you’re 21 years old and cocky (which I was).
When you work in any human service industry, it is impossible to predict what other humans will do. A school can have a book full of actions and consequences, but students frequently find ways to think outside the box and do something the book hasn’t accounted for yet. When this happens, remember my example, and do the exact opposite. Take a step back and consider setting a simple, reasonable, and enforceable limit. Doing so will save you from wasting time and from some not-so-fun consequences with those you aim to serve.
For more information on setting limits, I encourage you to consider trainings by the Crisis Prevention Institute. Pieces of their training modules focus on setting simple, reasonable, and enforceable limits.
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