It is Saturday morning. I have just had my coffee and have arrived at work. I do the Saturday detention. Really, it is a way to get paid for the hours that I would put in anyway on Saturday as well as allowing the detention to be more humane for the kids that messed up. I am not really into punishment. I try to help them to see this as a time to get some work done and make amends for a bad choice. I never really bought into the punitive model of education. I tend to think that school discipline needs to regard the kid, treat him or her with dignity, and require the same from him or her. That last part is hard with adolescents. It is a mutuality that I work toward.
Special Education and Class Behavior
I think that one of the hardest things that I have to do is manage the classroom with a group of special ed kids. They are not the kids that are able to apply the logic of consequences to their actions. They still need to moderate their behavior. Minimal expectations are just that, the bare minimum that is acceptable for anything.
A digression on minimal behavior; if I have rant, this is it: we – as a culture – have come to accept the minimum and punish excellence. The punishment for excellence is not always obvious. It can be the attitude that professional dress is frowned up (“Don’t do that, they’ll come to expect it…”) or asking why a worker will put extra effort into a project for the sake of pride in work. The result is that we worship at the altar of the great god Mediocrity. I do not believe in doing a half-assed job. For that I offer no apology to those that worship at that idol’s altar; I seek excellence. I want to be the best, not because I think I am better than others, but because I want to be better than I am. If I raise the bar, the kids will also rise to meet my expectations. But it is not fair to do that without offering appropriate support. Here ends the rant.
Behavior is the minimal expectation. I would like to believe that it is possible to inculcate a love of learning to my kids. I know that they are motivated when they make a grade. I think that they have gotten the idea that I give them a grade. I don’t give then squat. They earn their grades. Granted, I have changed the rubric for how the grade is made. I reward effort. My feeling is that if kids are receiving enforcement for effort that achievement will follow. Call me crazy, but this is my educational philosophy. I expect appropriate behavior in class. A kid that is removed from my class for behavior also loses points for that day and his or her grade is impacted. This is not a punishment. It is a choice and the logical outcome of the choice. Thus is the world. Thus is my class.
But, what happens to that kid that just does not get it? I have kids that misbehave for various reasons. Much of which is that they simply have not learned what is appropriate in class. I try to lead these kids to understand that they have to do what is asked. This is not a playtime: this is work. They are on what I call “my time.” There are the kids that understand precisely what they are doing. Those I come down on hard: consequences are quick and clearly defined. There is no ambiguity as to the reason for an action. Equally, consequences for good behavior are as quickly, if not more so, meted out. I want the kids to see that their appropriate behavior also has logical consequences and that these consequential actions are to their best interest.
Behavior Rather and Intention
Intrinsic motivation is the most powerful force to affect behavior. That is also something that a person finds in him or herself. Most of the time we all act out of perceived self-interest. Our motivation is to get something or avoid something. This is as true for the kids in school as it is for teachers and other adults. We act out of self-interest. Rarely do we ever transcend ourselves and act selflessly. This is not cynicism. It is the truth; we all act for our own purposes. For the most part what is good for “me” is good for “you” as well. The community is served as the individual prospers. I pay taxes not out of love for the government, but because I like having roads, police protection, schools, clean air and water and so on. I work not just out of love for my students – which does motivate me to do this rather than something else – but because they give me a little bit of money at the end of the month to do this (another subject for another posting).
Another rant: Why do we criticize our kids for wanting a reward for their labors? It is not a bribe to give a kid a homework pass or other reward for good work. I get paid for my work. Yet, we hold our kids to a higher standard than we ourselves are willing to attain: they have to work for the love of learning, we work for money. There is something wrong with that equation. Something very wrong, say I. While I would love to say that I am building an intrinsic love of learning that would be a stretch, even a lie. I enforce learning because the kids have come to learn that this is in their best interest. They receive positive reinforcement for their performance. They like the praise. They like to be rewarded with grades. I like to be rewarded with money. What is the problem with this? For my kids the rewards need to be immediate. Talking about the future is beyond most of them. But we expect them to learn for learning’s sake! This is truly bass-akwards when we consider that the kids in question are developmentally not at a point that they can grasp an ideal of altruism. Fair has nothing to do with it, it seems. End rant II.
Fair is Getting What I Need, Not the Same as Everybody Else
Why is this idea so hard to grasp? What is fair is not always equal. Yes, I believe that equal work deserves equal pay. But in order to do equal work some of us require disproportionate support. I have likened it to the comparison of social Darwinism to socialism. Capitalism rewards achievement is the cliché. What it rewards is reckless abandon for the rights of others in the name of greed. The strong may survive, but what of the compassionate or the creative? Rewarding strength only results in brutality.
Fairness is a loftier goal. It seems to me that many of us have never developed an adult sense of morality. I could offer my opinion as to why and never effect the impact of the observation. We believe that fair is equal distribution and then hold a contradictory notion that it is fair to keep what is attained by effort, even when that harms others. We use petroleum products like drugs in this culture. Is it fair to harm the environment, potentially permanently, so we can drive Hummers? The response is that “I earned this… It is mine.” Fine. What good does it do you when your children will not have a world in which to live? How is that fair? Fair is when all people get what they need, not what they want.
Fairness is difficult. What do we need? We need food and shelter. Really that is the minimum necessary. I would argue that arts are necessary. I also allow that not all would share that viewpoint. Food and shelter are the basic needs. We, as a world, have also agreed that a minimal education is requisite. It is difficult for me to justify as much as I have – and I live very simply – when I consider how little most have.
The minimal expectations need to be met. This is the beginning of a just society. But that will require a change in behavior. Behavioral changes originate from a perception of self-interest. And that will be deuce difficult…
But not impossible.
Ah, But I am only a fool…
- tDF
