cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by West Midlands Police
Late for supervision one day about five years ago, I was slightly speeding to work (it was about 10km over the speed limit) as I was going to be late. Of course, on the day that I was going to be late to work if I did not drive a little faster, I was pulled over by an officer. When I pulled over on the road, I expected that this was going to end in one way; with me receiving a ticket.
As the officer came to my window, he surprised me by not telling or asking me if I was speeding, he started with the question, “why were you speeding?”, understanding that I obviously had the common sense to know exactly why he had pulled me over. When I told him that I was actually speeding because I was going to be late for supervision and that I was the only teacher on duty that morning. I was speeding because I was concerned about the safety of the kids. He looked at me and said, “make sure that you leave earlier next time”, and then told me that he would follow me to work to ensure that I was there on time. My amount of respect for that specific officer went up tremendously because he had actually listened, evaluated the circumstances, and made a decision based upon his judgment, not simply on a list of rules and consequences. I always think of that day and I have not had a ticket for any violation since as I have been a much more conscientious driver.
But this could have ended in another way. It could have ended in the idea that because I broke rule ‘A’, that I need consequence ‘A’. Simple, cut and dry, and easy for the officer to decide. Take the thinking away from the situation and you can easily do your “job”. I was actually surprised that it didn’t end this way because of my preconceived notions of officers. The reality is that when things do end where broken rule leads to a specific consequence, the first thing that most of us think regarding the cop is, “what a jerk”, or something similar (or even more harsh); we tend to focus very little on what we had done wrong and shift the focus on the person dealing out the consequence. This makes us no less wrong, but we learn little from the situation. Schools need to be more than this.
Often we hear about behaviour programs that are very similar to this. Create a list of things that a student could possibly do (which if you have been an administrator, you will realize that this list could be infinite), and here is a list of consequences that match the action. This is not only what is done by an administrator, but set out by the school as the “standard”. These rules, many will feel, will provide order.
But do they? Or do they create a poisonous culture that build an “us vs. them” notion. If I, as a principal declared to our staff, ”If you are late for work, here is the specific consequence that will happen. Do it again, and here is the next consequence.” How would that build our staff culture? Many would think that they are being treated like ‘children’, yet the way that we treat children should not be the lowest common denominator. We need to treat each other as humans, individuals, each with our own set of circumstances and personalities. Although the intent is to always make people feel safe and comfortable, in the long term, we often create a culture that can be poisonous and subversive.
Here is a question I often ask…Is the consequence for fighting the same for every child? If we are being ‘fair’, many would say it should be. The follow up question that I have though is, what if one of the kids just had a parent that passed away or had dealt with some other traumatic event? Still the same? Fair and equal are not always the same thing.
The thing is that we should never liken ourselves to an officer handing out tickets for offenses. Our job is to create great men and women to lead us into the future. Conversations that have full participation from the student need to be had whenever something happens that we know is wrong. Kids need to learn from this and it is important that we always deal with things that happen in school; we do not need to deal with them in exactly the same manner.
Just like creating differentiated learning opportunities for students, behaviour should be dealt with in a differentiated manner as well. Barry Schwartz talks about the importance of “wisdom” and I believe that if we hire and trust teachers to work with our students, we need to trust them to build strong relationships with these individuals and use their wisdom to deal with each situation as they best see fit. We need to embody this as administrators as well.
For more discussion on this, the Barry Schwartz video is a great video to share with others.
This is great George and very timely. I am at a school where my staff is very good at this. We have a lot of high needs students with emotional issues and some mental health thrown in. (not uncommon today). I like to think I lead with compassion, empathy and differentiate consequences as a Principal. But I say your post is timely as just today, I met with a parent who is so upset because her child is constantly anxious about coming to school as he is the "victim" of bullying by a special needs student. As a relatively new Principal (4years in and 1st at this K – 6 school), I do find myself reflecting on where to draw the line sometimes. I have learned to ask a lot of questions and gather a lot of contextual information. So, I reflect on and wonder if or to what extent do "mitigating circumstances" conflict with the perspective of the "victims" of physical encounters or when learning is disrupted in class due to behavior.
I would appreciate some collegial wisdom.
George, this is great! Whenever I am supplying in a school and a child does something that they know shouldn't have been said or done, I always ask them, "If I had been any other teacher, what would have happened right now?" They respond that they would have been sent to the office or their parents called. I ask them why and they are very honest with their responses. I simply tell them to keep it in mind before they make the decision to do something/say something like that again (and follow it up with telling them they're lucky they have the best supply teacher ever
). I don't like discipline where it isn't necessary. In real life, people won't always be there to point out where you went wrong and you simply need to recognize your own mistakes and how to grow from them. So many teachers lack the compassion that officer had for you and simply punish students mindlessly, rather than talking it out with them and having an honest, empathetic relationship with their students.
Again, great post!
Very reflective and accurate post. Fair and equal are truly not the same but that is a mindshift for many- students, parents and teachers. One of the biggest challenges seems to be the fast pace of life and more often than not we do not take time to slow down and ask the why? Yet that is what is needed! The basic and simple -but enabling and powerful WHY?
I am 'new' to your blog (and have not yet gotten my feet wet in the admin world -one day) but I appreciate the issues and reflections you share. Thank you.
Hi George,
So many of your points have me nodding in agreement. I appreciate especially "Many would think that they are being treated like ‘children’, yet the way that we treat children should not be the lowest common denominator". In a system that is supposed to value and nurture children to become independent, responsible and ethical thinkers, we sometimes forget our moral purpose when dishing out consequences for their behaviors. Why is this? It saddens me that we do not take the student's push for independence or their misjudgements as a learning and growing experience. We need to guide them to make better decisions in the future in a way that is respectful of who they are. Thanks again for another great post:)
I can dig it.
Thanks for pointing out the poisonous aspects of consequences and the fact that consequences without consideration shift the conversation from an internal reflection to an external criticism.
Hope you're well, Pal.
Bill
I wrote this for a post on homework, but think that it is also relevant here. Cheers! ~Dave
As a math teacher, my first lessons were not about Math they were about life. I wrote this formula on the board:
http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/wp-content/uploa…
Equal is not equal to fair.
Sometimes certain students didn’t get homework, or they got alternate homework. Some didn’t write the pre-tests, some only did every other question, some only had to do 5 questions, some had to do them all. It’s not fair to give 3 students the same number of questions when one student is bored to death by them, one can do them in 20 minutes and still another student will struggle with them unsuccessfully for an hour… it would be equal, but not fair.
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