Disciplining unruly students by J Green

How are unruly students disciplined in today’s schools? This is a question that seems to stir a lot of interest. Dave Arnold an Educational Support Professional columnist for the National Educational Association writes of how when it comes to disciplining unruly students, school professionals often find themselves being disciplined for alerting school administration to a problem with a student. For example, Arnold writes, if a student is particularly unruly on, say, the school bus on the way to school, when the bus driver escorts that student to the principal’s office, it is not uncommon for the driver to find him or herself under scrutiny from the principal (http://www.nea.org/espcolumns/dv050916.html). Is this really the case? What has happened to discipline of unruly students in school? It is my own personal experience when, in front of the entire sport’s team, a student intentionally stormed off court, during a practice, knocking me with her shoulder, and nearly knocking me down because I had asked her to step off the court. During strategy instruction, she was conversing with friends and was not paying attention thus holding up that particular part of practice. When I reported the incidence to my athletic director at my school, I found myself having to justify why I asked this student to step off the court. I felt as though I had no right to ask a student to step off the court even if the student was not participating and instead was being a distraction. I am not sure if the athletic director was aware, but the message she sent to me and the students was the students may do what they want when they want because they are always right and supported. This includes being unruly on school premises and ultimately threatening a coach or other school professional. Needless to say, the student went undisciplined and I was warned to play that student during an upcoming game regardless of her previous actions.


At what cost is this unruliness affecting the quality of education? Likewise, what is it doing to the pool of personnel? After working as a coach for five years, I eventually left that school. It was incidences like the ones mentioned that reinforced for me the lack of support I was to receive from that school. Too often I felt I was on trial for reporting a student. If a student cursed, threatened me, had a secret rendezvous with a boyfriend while we were out of town, trashed a hotel during an overnight stay, or confided in me about a potential abuse she was experiencing, whenever I reported any incidence I found myself being on trial. I would have to report to the head mistress, the school psychologist, the parent committee, and the athletic director. I always thought I was doing the right thing by alerting my boss, the athletic director, right away; instead, I walked away feeling dejected. Having to sit with the school psychologist because a student reported abuse to me made me feel as though I had done something wrong. I was interrogated about whether or not I had forced the student to confess an abuse. I told them I had not. The student had simply openly spoke about it, but what surprised me was that the school seemed to care less about the alleged abuse and more about a student confiding to a school professional. That same student, by the way, was the student who I had earlier had the confrontation with on the court. Arnold writes in another article how school professionals are being blamed by the public for allowing students to go unruly; however, Arnold writes, it is that same public who will also “cry foul” when school professionals do discipline unruly students (http://www.nea.org/espcolumns/dv030708.html). Arnold says the unruliness has become so overwhelming that the best teachers are resigning.


So the question becomes what are teachers and other school professionals to do when it comes to disciplining unruly students? I must admit that when I switched professions going from coach to general education teacher, the support for unruly students did not change. I had gone through nearly two years of graduate school, at two different universities, learning about teaching English in high school. I learned activities for engaging students (although, I would later realize these activities work well with graduate students but not so well with urban high school students), I visited museums that cater to schools, I read books about how the adolescent mind develops and of how adolescents learn, and I have learned about programs for special education students and the laws protecting the special education students, such as No Child Left Behind. What I did not walk away with is how to discipline unruly students. There is lots of talk about classroom management, and the talk hints at if you cannot manage a class full of students something is wrong with you. I often felt like I had to walk into a classroom and become the bully. I was advised to create a “zero excuses” classroom. A classroom where I am the ruling voice and what I say goes. Well, the school year began and what I discovered was that for the first two marking periods I was in a perpetual tug-o-war with unruly students. I was not knocked over, but I could seldom teach a class since the unruly students insisted upon being the only voices heard and the only presence seen. They talked at the tops of their voices walking around the room speaking with their friends whenever they wanted or simply calling out to their friends from across the room. I resorted to shouting and arguing. It never worked. I was in graduate school learning how to become an English teacher, but, after two marking periods as an actual English teacher, I felt as though what I needed to learn was how to warden a prison. I began to feel as though I were nothing more than a glorified babysitter babysitting kids whose parents, when I gave them a call, often asked me how to handle unruly behavior. It turned out that often the parents experienced the same things at home and themselves struggled with disciplinary problems. I will not digress into the obvious blame game; instead, I will say that by the fourth marking period there was a dramatic change in my classroom. I stopped trying to make the students behave like I wanted them to behave and began thinking about the catalyst behind the behavior. My one on one talks with students turned away from me and my problems with the students to finding out if they needed to talk about their own problems. Mary Ellen Flannery (2005) writes about a new elementary school teacher who found herself having to hold the hand of an unruly student (http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0509/coverstory.html). In essence, I have come to approach unruly students as a metaphorical call for me to hold their hand. To my surprise, even my most threatening students have responded more positively to me when I in essence hold their hand. I do not believe that holding hands is the solution but I do believe that it is closure to what the problem may be. The kids are very young, even if some are nineteen and much bigger that their teachers, and they do not know how to deal with the emotional problems tugging away at them. They have problems at school, with friends, at home, and with a number of other things. Sometimes their problems are too grown up for their developing adolescent mind. As I decided to stop screaming and demanding my way (having my own tantrums) and to listen, what I discovered was a way in to how to work together. Flannery (2005) gives a list of twenty five tips for how to squash unruly behavior (http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0509/coverstory.html), don’t argue with students is one of the items. Arguing was one of the things that sent my classroom into a downward spiral.


I walk away from this past school year realizing that, one, I am still an English teacher. I love literature, and I love writing. I love learning new ways to communicate, and I want to pass this love on to all of my students hoping to generate a love of English language arts in them. I also walk away knowing that I am also an educator of model behavior. I cannot assume students come into my classroom knowing how to model disciplined behavior or even knowing how to respond to discipline. I can often be impatient. I walk away now knowing that it takes a lot of patience, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of time to learn and to grasp ideal behavior.

References

Arnold, D. Don’t Punish the messenger. National Education Association. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from
http://www.nea.org/espcolumns/dv050916.html.

Arnold, D. Unruly students going unpunished: Straying off the learning course too easy for some students. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from http://www.nea.org/espcolumns/dv030708.html.


Flannery, M. E. (2005). The D Word: Discipline problems weigh on educators today more than ever. But don't despair—there's plenty you can do to knock your challenges down to size. National Education Association. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from
http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0509/coverstory.html.