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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Discipline: Responding to Bad Behavior in School - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Discipline: Responding to Bad Behavior in School - Bridging Differences - Education Week:


Discipline: Responding to Bad Behavior in School

Dear Alfie,
As I read some of the responses to the blog, I have more and more sympathy for your viewpoint. The idea of a disguised punishment—the "thinking chair" with Teddy Bear—reminds me of many similar ideas coming from people I admire and respect (like Responsive Classrooms).
And as I read the comment from "jyatvin" on natural consequences, I think to myself: If they are natural, than we don't have to intervene as teachers at all—except to prevent consequences that are disproportionate or dangerous!
But then I realize how mad I am at the bankers and hedge-funders who haven't been punished—naturally or unnaturally. (See this report in The New York Times Business section about pre-meltdown conversations at Morgan Stanley.)
My friend Brenda Engel was telling me about living in France when her children were young and on leave from