They need Teaching… not Punishment
Is this teaching? Photo from http://bit.ly/quGvf0
Last year, during the reading of Dr. Ross Greene’s book “Lost at School” (another must read for any parent or educator), the following question helped me to further drive my views on student discipline:
Why is it that when a student that struggles with reading or math… we support… yet when a student struggles with behaviour… we punish?
As some of you are probably aware I try to avoid using punishment and rewards to try to get students to behave in a certain way. When we change our mindset from a role of someone who gives out punishment to someone who teaches and supports, students end up learning the skills needed to be successful in a social setting. As Greene states, when we change our lens from “kids do well if they want to… to kids do well if they can“, we see