Alfie and Jack

 Another week has been completed in my 3rd and 4th courses of my master's. Summer has set in. It's now just as important to have the air conditioner going to de-humidify as it is to cool. Laundry is about 40 minutes to wash and three or four days to dry. I went to the farther away grocery store today to get some things that are cheaper than the Ass Mart. It's only a 40-minute walk, but in the heat and humidity (28 degree Celsius and raining) it was a full on sweat. Here is what I have chosen to be the best thing I wrote this week. I'm not sure I'll get the best grade on it because it's basically slagging most of the crap I read in the course this week. But it deserved to be slagged. Read and see...

                                                              Alfie and Jack

“The whole field of classroom management amounts to techniques for manipulating students’ behavior. This takes for granted that the fault lies with the children” (Kohn, 1995). Reading theory on classroom management through the clarification the above quotation provides could save a lot of teachers a lot of time experimenting with methodology endowed with impressive titles like “control theory,” “internal motivation,” “differential reinforcement,” “positive discipline,” “win-win discipline,” “cooperative discipline,” and “love and logic” all of which seem to have their lists like “9 essential skills for teachers,” “7 roads to trouble,” “3 types of teacher,” “4 goals of misbehavior,” “7 positions,” “5 P’s,” “4 mistaken beliefs,” “3 tiers of behavior management,” “5 basic needs written into our genetic structure,” and so on. Just looking at that sentence could overwhelm a teacher. However, armed with the Kohn quote and one from Aldous Huxley about a “really efficient totalitarian state,” a teacher can get a good indication of what they are up against in regard to classroom management, a field Henry & Abowitz write is ever “vulnerable to the novelty and appeal of ‘the latest thing’” (Henry & Knight Abowitz, n.d./1997). The quote from Huxley states that a “population of slaves who do not need to be coerced because they love their servitude (Huxley, 2010) would make the best totalitarian state. Huxley goes on to say that the task falls to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors, and teachers (Huxley, 2010).

If one thinks of the classroom as a totalitarian state in which the teacher’s classroom management responsibilities include making the students love their servitude, you will understand why it is “an especially fertile terrain for any technique or plan which promises effective ways to make the classroom a peaceful and productive place” (Henry & Knight Abowitz, n.d./1997). If you then consider the fact that if students were to spend the same amount of time doing anything else that they spend in the classroom, it would be considered deviant, unhealthy, addictive, even crisis behavior (Carney, 2015), you might get an inkling that maybe the number one stressor for teachers – misbehavior (Nelsen & Gfroerer, 2017) is not necessarily the fault of the kids. It enables the sagacious reader to see through some of the logical and promising sounding terminology of classroom management theory by taking the perspective of the student. As Alfie Kohn wrote, try not to focus on the child who doesn’t do what he’s told, but on what he’s being told to do and how reasonable it is (Kohn, 1995).

One of the best examples of classroom management theory that is practicing totalitarian coercion and not considering the student’s point of view is the hypothetical example of “Jack” given in the writings of Spencer Kagan creator of “win-win discipline” and the list of “7 positions” from which a student’s misbehavior originates (Kagan, 2002). In the scenario, Mrs. Johnson announces a homework assignment and Jack slams his book on the floor and yells, “I’m not going to do those stupid problems and you can’t make me.” Mrs. Johnson assumes Jack’s disruptive behavior comes from position 4 on the list, the control-seeking position. Mrs. Johnson then tells Jack that it is his choice to do the homework, she can’t force him. He will not receive the homework points, but he is in control of that (Kagan, 2002). If Jack is misbehaving from position 2, avoiding embarrassment, then Mrs. Johnson will meet with him privately and relate to Jack’s needs to practice more and this will give him a higher chance of success. (Kagan, 2002). Of course, none of this is true. Jack is under the control of a totalitarian education system, not to mention parents, and the goal of it all seems to be this arbitrarily created objective of passing the class, which he neither understands, nor buys into. He’s upset because he sees his teachers more than his parents and then when he gets home, he has even more schoolwork to do. Besides, homework doesn’t help. Alfie Kohn wrote a whole book on that (Kohn, 2006). Jack is right, but there is no “position” on the list of 7 for what to do when a student is correctly exposing problems with the education system.

Admittedly, the revolutionary change the Kohn theories support would not be welcomed by everyone. There are reasons why some countries have kids in schools for long hours and unsurprisingly, in countries where parents tend to work longer hours, children spend longer hours in the classroom. Also unsurprisingly, a lot of the same countries have education systems that are highly influenced by very strong industrial lobbies.  Most of these countries have expensive daycare as well. As much as a teacher hates to hear it, part of the job is taking care of kids while parents (more and more often both parents) are working. Revolutionary thinking like addressing the real reasons there are so many behavioral problems in schools is possible, take Finland for example (Loveless, 2022), but few countries are willing or able to make the commitment Finland has made. Despite its unquestionable success, their education system frightens people.

For industry and people with strong political commitments or who are fearful of the costs of educational revolution, the Kagan system is a positive alternative to doing what Finland did and what Kohn would like to see in America, and that is understandable. This author would love to see such an educational revolution in Canada and is a huge Alfie Kohn fan. There is hope that industry’s changing needs due to automation could finally open other countries to more Finnish-like education systems, but that is only likely to happen when industry is good and ready. Until then, teachers will have to plate spin the many classroom management theories instead of addressing the actual sources of the behavior problems. “Changing your behavior and strategies is often the most efficient and effective means of improving all types of classroom behaviors… The building block of emotions and behavior likely contains the largest and most diverse set of problems encountered in the classroom. By first understanding these problems and seeing the world through the eyes of your students, and, by then developing and using a set of intervention strategies on a regular basis, problems of emotions and behavior can be effectively managed and changed in the classroom” (Mather & Goldstein, n.d.). That should take 20-25 years of experience or so.

 

                                                                   References

Carney, M. (2015). Internet-addicted South Korean children sent to digital detox boot camp. ABC News Australia. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-13/south-korean-children-seek-help-at-digital-detox-boot-camp/6769766

Henry, S. E., & Knight Abowitz, K. (1997). Interpreting Glasser's control theory: problems that emerge from innate needs and predetermined ends. In R. E. Butchart & B. E. McEwen (Eds.), Classroom discipline in American schools: problems and possibilities for democratic education (pp. 157–163). State University of New York Press. (Reprinted from n.d.)

Huxley, A. (2010). Brave New World (11th ed.). Vintage.

Kagan, S. (2002). What is win-win discipline? Kagan Online Magazine. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/dr_spencer_kagan/ASK15.php

Kohn, A. (1995). Discipline is the problem - not the solution. Learning Magazine. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/discipline-problem-solution/

Kohn, A. (2006). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Life Long. https://www.alfiekohn.org/homework-improve-learning/

Loveless, B. (2022). 27 surprising Finnish education system facts and statistics. Education Corner. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.educationcorner.com/finland-education-system/

Mather, N., & Goldstein, S. (n.d.). Behavior modification in the classroom. LD online. https://www.ldonline.org/ld-topics/classroom-management/behavior-modification-classroom

Nelsen, J., & Gfroerer, K. (2017). Positive discipline tools for teachers: Effective classroom management for social, emotional, and academic success. Harmony Books. https://doi.org/https://books.google.co.in/books?id=GgEQDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=positive+discipline&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=positive%20discipline&f=false