“Two women are standing on a bank of a swift river.  In the strong current, flailing about, desperately struggling to stay afloat, a man is carried downstream toward them.  The women both jump in, pulling the man to safety.  While the brave rescuers are tending the victim, a second man, also desperate and screaming for help, is carried by the current toward them. Again the women jump into the river to the rescue.  As they are pulling out this second victim, they spot a third man flailing about as he is carried downstream toward them.  One woman quickly jumps in to save the latest victim.  As she does, she turns to see the other woman resolutely walking upstream.  “Why aren’t you helping?” she cries.  “I am,” states the other.  “I am going to see who is pushing them in!” (Kagan, 2001)

Preventive:

This quote makes me think really hard about the teaching profession and about how those three poor men are really the same as students drowning in the river of today’s education.  In addition, those two brave women are our teachers struggling to save every soul that wades down past them.  However, the one woman takes a different rescuing approach, one that “nips it in the bud.”  She has taken what I like to call the preventive approach. 

Now, drowning in a river and drowning in a classroom are a little different but, the result still could be a life threatening event.  This fact is really troubling to think about because, as teachers, we are the ones trying to keep our students afloat to ensure them a successful and happy future.       As a future teacher, I have come to look at William Glasser as my lifesaver in preventive discipline.  He discusses how students have 5 basic needs and how all of these needs must be met in a classroom environment to ensure that all students are learning to their fullest capacity and without behavioral interruptions.  These 5 basic needs that he refers to are really needs that must be met for all of us in order to function in our surrounding environments.  They consist of Love (sense of belonging), Power, Fun, Freedom, and Survival.  If students are not having these needs met while they are in a classroom, then behavior issues are inevitable. (Charles 73)  As an educator, it will be my job to ensure that all of my student’s needs are being met.  For example, if I look at the need for survival, I can see that it has many sub-categories such as food, water, shelter, etc.  Something as simple as letting my students have a water bottle on their desk and allowing a snack time can ensure me that their survival needs or at least a portion of that need is going to be met.  The key to prevent behavior problems is to know where they start which, in most cases, can be tracked back to those 5 basic needs.

Supportive Discipline:

       There are many different kinds of support that can be given in a classroom environment.  Among these various kinds includes supporting positive behaviors.  This idea, in the past, has been looked at as positive reinforcement. In my opinion, when I think of supporting positive behavior, I think of B.F. Skinner and his shaping behavior procedure. (Charles 57).  However, I personally do not believe that shaping behavior through use of reinforcement or “rewards” makes a student able to make the right decisions later on in life.  Students will never receive the feeling of self satisfaction or the understanding of a job well done because they are expecting something much more monetary as a result.  Skinner’s theory makes me think of students as robots who can be trained to do specific tasks as long as they know they will get something from it in the end.  This is not supporting anything because students will always need it.  The idea of a support is something that can be used to gain a desired result but, in turn taken away when no longer needed.

          Personally, my approach to supportive discipline leans more towards the ideas of Jane Nelson and Lynn Lott.  I want my students to “behave with dignity, self-control, and concern for others. (Charles 73)  Ways in which I can help support this is by helping to build positive relationships between myself and my students and between student to student.  This includes checking with my students, exploring, encouraging, celebrating, and respecting them. (Charles 105)  I want them to be empowered and to take responsibility for their own behaviors.  I’m not going to say to my students, “it’s chilly outside, don’t forget your hat and mittens.”  I am going to be the teacher who says “it’s chilly outside what do you need to remember in order to take care of yourself.” (Charles 105)  Too often, teachers act as a crutch for their students inhibiting their ability to think and grow on their own.

 I also believe in the idea of classroom meetings.  I think that this is an excellent way to get students to know themselves, the teacher, and each other.  Communication is an excellent tool that will never become outdated and once it is taught then it is something that will always be used.

 Setting up clear and concise expectations and consequences is something that I believe is also important.  I want my students to know exactly what is expected of them and what will happen if misbehaviors do occur and if positive behaviors occur as well.  Sometimes I think we forget that positive behavior consequences are just as equally important as the negative ones.

Overall, there are a number of different procedures, techniques, and styles that teachers can use to help support positive behaviors in their classroom.  For me, I think that setting up clear and concise boundaries for behaviors and using the right types of  communication is a dynamite way to get students to behave in a manner that is both beneficial to the classroom and to every student as an individual.

 Corrective Discipline:

          After discussing both the preventive and supportive aspects of discipline, I have come to the conclusion that once all of these ideas are put into place, the students themselves are the ones who are responsible for correcting their own misbehavior(s).  Diane Gossen likes to refer to this idea as, the self- restitution theory.  This theory mainly focuses on the idea that things are not paid back but rather forward.  Both the offender and the offended get what they need in the end.  What is most beneficial about this particular theory is that it makes a student look inside themselves and decide what type of person they want to be and how a person, like the one they choose, acts and conducts themselves in everyday life. (Charles 188,189)

          What this means for me as a teacher, is that, I am the one who will guide students into this realm of self-reflection.  I will do this by using Gossen’s four step approach: Opening Up the Territory, Establishing a Social Contract, Establishing Limits, and Teaching the Essence of what Self- Restitution really is. (Charles 191)  Students need to be able to have as much freedom as possible in a classroom setting, they need to be able to have a say in how their classroom is run (choices), and they need to know what their jobs are and what the jobs of their teacher are.

For me, my philosophy of discipline begins with Glasser and ends ultimately with the student.  However, I know that the ideas I hold true now will not always be the same as the ones that I will hold true for the future but, that’s what learning and teaching is all about!