Psychology of Discipline in the Public School System in America

This was writen about 4 years ago by me for a class I was taking in College. I don't remember the class name but I think is was psychology class or early childhood education. I believe it was a perfect score for the paper so I am proud to let you read it. This is how I feel about how the American Schools System is failing our students!
THANKS! ---
Psychology of Discipline in the
Public School System in America.
The shocking and tragic violence that has played out in our nation's schools in the last couple of years has elevated the status of school discipline from an issue of perennial concern to one of national urgency. No longer can small rural districts assume that violence is an inner-city issue and that they are immune from problems of school disruption or violence. No longer can we expect special educators working alone to solve all problems of emotional and behavioral disorders. Rather, it has become clear that the threat of school violence cuts across class, geographical location, and the presence or absence of a disability label.(SKIBA/ PETERSON 2003)
First we need to see how not to create discipline problems before we discuss the psychology of discipline. Creating classroom discipline problems is very easy to do, by following these ten items:

1. Expect the worst from kids. This will keep you on guard at all times.
2. Never tell students what is expected of them. Kids need to learn to figure things out for themselves.
3. Punish and criticize kids often. This better prepares them for real life.
4. Punish the whole class when one student misbehaves. All the other students were probably doing the same thing or at least thinking about doing it.
5. Never give students privileges. It makes students soft and they will just abuse privileges anyway.
6. Punish every misbehavior you see. If you do not, the students will take over.
7. Threaten and warn kids often. “If you aren’t good, I’ll keep you after school for the rest of your life.”
8. Use the same punishment for every student. If it works for one, it will work for all.
9. Use schoolwork as punishment. “Okay, smarty, answer all the questions in the book for homework!”
10. Maintain personal distance from students. Familiarity breeds contempt, you know.

I doubt we would do any of these items deliberately but punishments are frequently dealt out without much thought about their effects. (Wasucsko/Ross, 248) Discipline used to mean regimentation. You did what you were told, when you were told, and shut up rest of the time, or worse, sent to the principals office for corporal punishment. What was worst is if you got it at school, you got it twice as bad at home from your parents. That was less then two generations ago. (Worzel, 2003)
Many teachers work hard at controlling their students. They shout, they bribe, they coax. When students rebel, these teachers work even harder to control them and get even more rebellion. No wonder they are exhausted at the end of the day, not to mention frustrated.
All this work would be unnecessary if the students took control of them selves. As a substitute teacher, you are responsible to students, parents, and colleagues for maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment. (Good, 36)
Here is a list of items that can help you control your classroom and make the flow go better during the day:
1. Focusing
Be sure you have the attention of everyone in your classroom before you start your lesson. Do not attempt to teach over the chatter of students who are not paying attention.
Inexperienced teachers sometimes think that by beginning their lesson, the class will settle down. The children will see that things are underway now and it is time to go to work. Sometimes this works, but the children are also going to think that you are willing to compete with them, that you do not mind talking while they talk, or that you are willing to speak louder so that they can finish their conversation even after you have started the lesson. They get the idea that you accept their inattention and that it is permissible to talk while you are presenting a lesson.
The focusing technique means that you will demand their attention before you begin. It means that you will wait and not start until everyone has settled down. Experienced teachers know that silence on their part is very effective. They will punctuate their waiting by extending it 3 to 5 seconds after the classroom is completely quiet. Then they begin their lesson using a quieter voice than normal.
A soft-spoken teacher often has a calmer, quieter classroom than one with a stronger voice. Her students sit still in order to hear what she says.

2. Direct Instruction
Uncertainty increases the level of excitement in the classroom. The technique of direct instruction is to begin each class by telling the students exactly what will be happening. The teacher outlines what he and the students will be doing this period. He may set time limits for some tasks.
An effective way to marry this technique with the first one is to include time at the end of the period for students to do activities of their choosing. The teacher may finish the description of the hour’s activities with “And I think we will have some time at the end of the period for you to chat with your friends, go to the library, or catch up on work for other classes.”
The teacher is more willing to wait for class attention when he knows there is extra time to meet his goals and objectives. The students soon realize that the more time the teacher waits for their attention, the less free time they have at the end of the hour.

3. Monitoring
The key to this principle is to circulate. Get up and get around the room. While your students are working, make the rounds. Check on their progress.
An effective teacher will make a pass through the whole room about two minutes after the students have started a written assignment. She checks that each student has started, that the children are on the correct page, and that everyone has put their names on their papers. The delay is important. She wants her students to have a problem or two finished so she can check that answers are correctly labeled or in complete sentences. She provides individualized instruction as needed.
Students who are not yet quite on task will be quick to get going as they see her approach. Those that were distracted or slow to get started can be nudged along. The teacher does not interrupt the class or try to make general announcements unless she notices that several students have difficulty with the same thing. The teacher uses a quiet voice and her students appreciate her personal and positive attention.

4. Modeling
“Values are caught, not taught.” Teachers who are courteous, prompt, enthusiastic, in control, patient and organized provide examples for their students through their own behavior. The “do as I say, not as I do” teachers send mixed messages that confuse students and invite misbehavior.
If you want students to use quiet voices in your classroom while they work, you too will use a quiet voice as you move through the room helping youngsters.

5. Non-Verbal Cuing
A standard item in the classroom of the 1950’s was the clerk’s bell. A shiny nickel bell sat on the teacher’s desk. With one tap of the button on top, he had everyone’s attention. Teachers have shown a lot of ingenuity over the years in making use of non-verbal cues in the classroom. Some flip light switches. Others keep clickers in their pockets.
Non-verbal cues can also be facial expressions, body posture and hand signals. Care should be given in choosing the types of cues you use in your classroom. Take time to explain what you want the students to do when you use your cues.

6. Environmental Control
A classroom can be a warm cheery place. Students enjoy an environment that changes periodically. Study centers with pictures and color invite enthusiasm for your subject.
Young people like to know about you and your interests. Include personal items in your classroom. A family picture or a few items from a hobby or collection on your desk will trigger personal conversations with your students. As they get to know you better, you will see fewer problems with discipline.
Just as you may want to enrich your classroom, there are times when you may want to impoverish it as well. You may need a quiet corner with few distractions. Some students will be caught up in visual exploration. For them, the splash and the color is a siren that pulls them off task. They may need more “vanilla” and less “rocky-road.” Have a quiet place where you can steer these youngsters. Let them get their work done first and then come back to explore and enjoy the rest of the room.

7. Low-Profile Intervention
Most students are sent to the principal’s office as a result of confrontational escalation. The teacher has called them on a lesser offense, but in the moments that follow, the student and the teacher are swept up in a verbal maelstrom. Much of this can be avoided when the teacher’s intervention is quiet and calm.
An effective teacher will take care that the student is not rewarded for misbehavior by becoming the focus of attention. She monitors the activity in her classroom, moving around the room. She anticipates problems before they occur. Her approach to a misbehaving student is inconspicuous. Others in the class are not distracted.
While lecturing to her class this teacher makes effective use of name-dropping. If she sees a student talking or off task, she simply drops the youngster’s name into her dialogue in a natural way. “And you see, David, we carry the one to the tens column.” David hears his name and is drawn back on task. The rest of the class does not seem to notice.

8. Assertive Discipline
This is traditional limit setting authoritarianism. When executed as presented by Lee Canter (who has made this form a discipline one of the most widely known and practiced) it will include a good mix of praise. This is high profile discipline. The teacher is the boss and no child has the right to interfere with the learning of any student. Clear rules are laid out and consistently enforced.

9. Assertive I-Messages
A component of Assertive Discipline, these I-Messages are statements that the teacher uses when confronting a student who is misbehaving. They are intended to be clear descriptions of what the student is suppose to do. The teacher who makes good use of this technique will focus the child’s attention first and foremost on the behavior he wants, not on the misbehavior. “I want you to...” or “I need you to...” or “I expect you to...”
The inexperienced teacher may incorrectly try “I want you to stop...” only to discover that this usually triggers confrontation and denial. The focus is on the misbehavior and the student is quick to retort: “I wasn’t doing anything!” or “It wasn’t my fault...” or “Since when is there a rule against...” and escalation has begun.

10. Humanistic I-Messages
These I-messages are expressions of our feelings and tells us to structure these messages in three parts. First, include a description of the child’s behavior. “When you talk while I talk...” Second, relate the effect this behavior has on the teacher. “...I have to stop my teaching...” Third, let the student know the feeling that it generates in the teacher. “...which frustrates me.”
A teacher, distracted by a student who was constantly talking while he tried to teach, once made this powerful expression of feelings: “I cannot imagine what I have done to you that I do not deserve the respect from you that I get from the others in this class. If I have been rude to you or inconsiderate in any way, please let me know. I feel as though I have somehow offended you and now you are unwilling to show me respect.” The student did not talk during his lectures again for many weeks.

11. Positive Discipline
Use classroom rules that describe the behaviors you want instead of listing things the students cannot do. Instead of “no-running in the room,” use “move through the building in an orderly manner.” Instead of “no fighting, “ use “settle conflicts appropriately.” Instead of “no gum chewing,” use “leave gum at home.” Refer to your rules as expectations. Let your students know this is how you expect them to behave in your classroom.
Make ample use of praise. When you see good behavior, acknowledge it. This can be done verbally, of course, but it does not have to be. A nod, a smile or a “thumbs up” will reinforce the behavior. (McDaniel, 1986)

Classroom expectations should be clear and prominently posted. High schools are notorious for providing manuals, and those who do read them, will often not reminder their content by the end of the first week of school. Unfortunately, most students will never read these manuals ever in their school career.
Because some students are auditory learners and others are visual learners, teachers should periodically review the posted rules. To see how well student remember the rules, some teachers conduct contest in which students are rewarded for correctly summarizing what the rules state.
In addition to posting classroom expectations, teachers must establish rewards for students who follow the rules. They may give free time at the end of the day or send a positive note to the parents of the student. When deciding what rewards to use, teachers must think about what is motivating to each student in the classroom. In the early days of behavior modification, teachers assumed that candy was reinforcing to all students when, in fact, that was not the case. Teachers must also be careful to provide the reinforcement often enough for the students. We have seen teachers offer as reinforcement a movie to be seen at the end of the month, yet primary and even many secondary students; you cannot delay gratification for that long. Some type of reward may need to be provided daily or weekly. Further, all physical reinforces should be accompanied by verbal reinforces.
Appropriately planned activities can minimize the opportunity for behavioral problems. Students who are excited about learning and eager to do activities planned by the teacher are less likely than others to have behavioral problems. The teacher should plan activities that are highly motivating and challenging for all students. Students today tend to become bored easily, so the teacher should change activates frequently and provide a fast pace in the classroom. Students need to see the reason behind doing the activities. A teacher should relate to the students with the interest of today.
Changes in the classroom routine can also result in behavioral problems. Such changes are sometimes unavoidable. Like snow closings, early dismissal or two-hour delay, but it is how the teacher handles the changes in classroom routine is critical. On days in which the classroom routine must be changed, the teacher should clearly outline his or here exact expectations. (Johns/Carr, 13)
Example:
Two-hour delay on an early dismissal day. I was the substitute teacher last week in a high school classroom. When I came in, I was handed a schedule of how things were going to be for the whole day. Each period was 20 minutes long. Just long enough to give them homework and tell them to have a great day. I decided to write the new schedule on the board so when they came in to class they could write it down. I was told many times that day that was the best thing that I could of done. I also wrote down on the board what the day’s assignments were and when they were due. This made the day run very smooth and it was a wonderful day. (Knepp, 2004)

Instance of verbal aggression and other behavioral problems, teachers can and should attend to the problem without assistance. Each time a teacher sends a student to the principal’s office for a minor behavioral problem, that teacher sends a message to the student that he or she cannot handle the problem. The teacher weakens his or her authority in the eyes of the student. (Johns/Carr 145)
Zero tolerance discipline:
Zero tolerance policies in schools have been aimed at deterring serious student offenses involving possession of firearms and other weapons, drugs, tobacco and alcohol. These were designed to safeguard students by removing violent students quickly before a bad situation escalates. Polices of zero tolerance do not make any schools safer, even though many educators see them as the backbone of school discipline. Zero tolerance is now the rule in over 80% of the nation’s schools. (Black, 27 – 31)
Almost from the outset, zero tolerance disciplinary policies have created controversy. Across the nation, students have been and continue to be suspended or expelled for a host of relatively minor incidents including nail files, paper clips, organic cough drops, and a model rocket, a 5" plastic axe as part of a Halloween costume, an inhaler, and a kitchen knife in a lunch box to cut chicken (Skiba / Peterson, 1999). These harsh reactions to relatively trivial incidents may also be connected to the two-year and even permanent expulsions being considered by some districts. If a student is expelled for a year for a toy cap gun, districts may feel a need to distinguish truly dangerous incidents by extending punishment even further for actual weapons. Oftentimes, policymakers in these contentious incidents claim that they are allowed little or no room for flexibility in the administration of district disciplinary policy. Yet this inflexibility is in no way a requirement of federal zero tolerance policy. Indeed, by requiring local districts to have in place a procedure allowing for case-by-case review, the Gun-Free Schools Act appears to mandate some degree of flexibility in the implementation of zero tolerance.
The zero tolerance approach has led to increases in the use of school suspension and expulsion; unfortunately, there is no evidence that suspension and expulsion are effective in changing student behavior or improving school safety. Despite a widespread perception that suspension and expulsion are reserved for serious incidents, those consequences are often used indiscriminately; in 1997-98, only about 4% of the suspensions and expulsions in Indiana were in response to serious disruptions. Moreover, exclusionary approaches tend to be used inconsistently: one researcher concluded that students wishing to reduce their rates of suspension would do better changing schools than improving their behavior or attitudes. Finally, while there is little data on the short-term effectiveness of suspension, in the long term, it is associated with higher rates of school dropout.
The message of zero tolerance is politically appealing, giving parents and communities the perception that schools are being tough on crime. While there are doubtless situations in which removing a child from school is necessary for that child or others' safety, at present we have no evidence that punishment and exclusion can in and of themselves solve problems of school violence, or teach students alternatives to violence.
In all this, the psychological effects of punishment in the school systems around the United States are you are expelled for non-violent behavior, almost humorist behavior. Students in a Fort Wayne school were expelled for taking pictures of each other in the school locker room after a football game. Yes, it was wrong and with zero tolerance, they are expelled.
When I was in school, I had an Ex-boyfriend and his friend crawl up in to the ducts over the showers of the girls and boys locker room. They were just there having fun and giggling at people taking showers in the locker room. They were quickly caught and suspended for 5 days but never were they in any trouble with the law or expelled. It was considered things boys did and the case was closed. I believe the school officials believe the embarrassment of the events would be enough punishment.
When I was in 3rd grade and was into karate and marshal arts I brought to school fighting stars and was not even asked to take them home and the teacher provided a place for me to throw them and also brought numb chucks and a Klingon type blade to school the same year but was told to take them home. If I had done the same thing today, at school, I would probably be in jail and juvenile hall and most definitely expelled.
To close this report and bring why punishment is sometimes a very bad idea is when it is in the hands of a 2nd grade teacher named, Mr. C.. When I was placed in her class, she taught the class as if we were in middle school. She would write the lessons on the board and just sit back at her desk not giving a care what the students were doing as far as work. She did not teach and she just expected you to know what to do.
I some how got on her bad side. I and this other student named Alex. Everyday things grew to be worst. I had a minor problem with what my mother called,”Grunting”, which now I know as masturbation. I did know what I was doing, I was 8 years old and all I knew what I was doing felt good.
Well, because I was doing this in class, and this was before my mother knew of what Mrs. C was up too, she told Mrs. C that it was okay to restrict my restroom time. Therefore, as punishment, I was not allowed to even go to the restroom. If I had to go to the restroom, and I could hold it no longer, Mrs. C told me she had to watch me. (Something my mother never told her to do.) That was when the abuse began.
Mrs. C would grab my arm and escort me to the restroom. She would plant me in the handicap stall and would scream at me, that I was wasting her time and that she was going to paddle me when we got back to class. She would grab me off the stool before I was done going to the restroom and slam me against the wall, pull up my underwear and pants. Then she would throw me out in to the main restroom. I still was in the middle of going to the bathroom. Threw my hands into the sink and rubbed them harshly with soap and water.
She then took me down the hall, back to the room, and sat me out side of the room. Mrs. C then retrieved her paddle and began to spank me. She delivered no less then 10 whacks with a paddle and then she grabbed me, ran me in the classroom and forced me to sit on the paddle and think about it. This cycle repeated many weeks and I was afraid to go to the restroom.
That was not the end of the abuse, she and a teacher by the name of Mrs. T would make me sit under a table in the room while the rest of the class was reading. Soon another student, Alex, was under that table with me. Both of the teachers had picked us out for punishment and to make an example to the rest of the classroom.
Alex and I were held in from recess everyday for any little thing. One day I had had enough and decided to go out for recess. Mrs. C told me to redo all the math problems in my math book before recess was over with. I wrote numbers on the paper, I did not care if they were right or wrong; I just wanted to go side on recess. I told Alex, that was sitting in the coat closet bin, after being beaten with the paddle, that I was going out for recess. He told me, “You know what is going to happen if you do!” I looked at him and just smiled and shook my head. I ran out the front doors of the school and up on the playground, only to run in to my teacher.
Fear took over me and I stopped cold in my tracks. “Did you get the math done!” she exclaimed. “Yes”, I said in a small voice. “They had all better be correct and I will be checking. If they are not correct, I will be paddling you when we get back in to classroom. Are they all correct?” Mrs. C said grabbing my arm. “I don’t know if they are all correct.” I said with tears in my eyes. Then she picked me up by one arm and began to whale on me with her hand to my rear end. I screamed then she threw me down and told me to sit there. I was screaming and crying, laying on the ground in the fetal position.
At the end of the recess, she grabbed me and dragged me in to the building, to the restroom and that was the first time I was molested by her. (Which I am not going to talk about.) Then it was off to another paddling. My mother had no idea what was going on, I do not blame her at all for everything that happen.
When I had my tonsils out later that year, my mom decided to keep me home for the rest of the semester but the damage had all been done. There out I was never trustful of teachers until I got out of school and in the college. Even now, I am still hesitate of teachers and me becoming a substitute teacher has helped me work through my fear that I had of punishment and teachers.

***I decided to withdrawl the name of the teacher due to not wanting issues with her in the future. Mrs. C. continued to teach and was switched to Kindergarten and has remain there for many years. She would pick out two students every year before me and after me to do awful things to. She is still teaching today at the new school in our town. I am now just getting over what happen to me during that time in school. This might be the reason why I keep going back to school because of this. I have no idea. There was also a Mr. M. that did even worst things to both me and Alex. Alex ended up killing himself that same year, at least that was what I was told.