Personal CR&M Philosophy

Glenn

I believe that discipline and positive encouragement both have a place in the modern classroom. For me, I believe that the challenge will be to find the proper balance between these two approaches. Although I would agree that it is preferable for the teacher to manage the classroom and his/her students through the use of positive encouragement (which may include creative lesson planning, learning about students' backgrounds, asking students to own their own behaviour, etc.), I do not believe that it is realistic that this is the sole technique to be used. In my opinion, some students learn better and behave better when they are encouraged and when they are sent positive messages that they can do it and that they are not stupid and that they do amount to something. These students may cease their previously inappropriate behaviour or may not exhibit inappropriate behaviour because they are getting the message that someone believes in them. However, I also believe that this approach will not work for everyone and that there are those students who will respond only to punishment or threat of punishment to control their behaviour. For these students, it does not matter how many times you call them “brilliant” or how often you tell them that they are “great”, or how great a lesson may be, it will not make a difference. Since students are compelled to be in the classroom, there may simply be a negative attitude to being in school (whatever the class, teacher, subject, or topic being taught). A teacher’s focus in these situations has to shift from a more “rehabilitative” stance (ie: for which positive encouragement may work to reform the disruptive student and prevent them from further misbehaviour) to a “prophylactic” stance (ie. where the objective is to avoid further disruption while not necessarily directly ensuring that the child becomes a better student, though it may indirectly happen). Clearly, I will have to work within the framework of the DET’s discipline policy as well as that of the school where I will be working. However, within that framework, in the classroom, I will want to do my best to emphasise the positive (ie. as set out in the “Building Positive Classrooms” handout) while recognising that sometimes, with some students, the only thing that will work is to discipline them using a “Glasser-type” model. Though this may sound harsh to some, I do believe that it is realistic in today's classroom.

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