BEYOND DISCIPLINE

The chief source of the “problem of discipline” in schools is that... a premium is put on physical quietude; on silence, on rigid uniformity of posture and movement; upon a machine-like simulation of the attitudes of intelligent interest. The teachers’ business is to hold the pupils up to these requirements and to punish the inevitable deviations which occur.
- John Dewey, Democracy and Education

CHAPTER 1 KEY CONCEPTS

• Teachers have negative assumptions about children that determine discipline strategies in a classroom setting such as: children are untrustworthy.
• Teachers feel a need to control their students because otherwise, they believe it will result in chaos. This is referred to as “power drunk.”
• “Teachers who assume that children are capable of acting virtuously can likewise set into motion a self-fulfilling prophesy.” (Loc 223)

CHAPTER 2 kEY CONCEPTS

• As teachers we “avoid asking questions about the ends and instead focus on the means” therefore, “the problem always rests with the child who doesn’t do what he’s asked, never with what he has been asked to do.” (Loc 287)
• Our preferences drive our discipline. We say no because we don’t like it, not because it will cause students not to learn.
• “How students act in class is so intertwined with curricular content that it may be folly even to talk about classroom management or discipline as a field unto itself.” (Loc 413)

CHAPTER 3 KEY CONCEPTS

• Discipline that causes temporary compliance does not teach children to care about how their actions affect them and the people around them.
• Punishment teaches children that when “you don’t like the way someone is acting, you just make some bad happen to that person until he gives in.” (Loc 505)
• Rewards only give you temporary compliance.“Rewards, like punishments, can only manipulate someone’s actions. They do nothing to help a child become a kind and caring person.” (Loc. 614)

CHAPTER 4 KEY CONCEPTS

• The “logical” consequences we instill on children are actually pretty illogical. (I.e. the punishment fits the crime).
• A better way to use logical consequences is to ask, “What do you think will happen if you do this bad thing again?” (Loc 790)
• “A caring adult wants to help children learn to make responsible decisions about the things that matter to them—and to help them see the results of those decisions.” (Loc 916).