Look at this! Published in 1997

Ok, so this is from my Special Education course materials.  Credit is given at the beginning of this article.

Is it me or has this method of teaching discipline been used for all students regardless of ability?

GC

   

Ronald Morrish is a behaviour specialist with the Lincoln County Board of Education, he is also the author of “Secrets of Discipline” (book and video). For ordering information contact: Woodstream Publishing, P.O. Box 12093, Fonthill, ON LOS 1EO.

Source: Keeping In Touch,
quarterly newsletter from the
Canadian Council for Exceptional
Children, Winter ’97

“Gambling With Discipline”

 

 

Today’s popular discipline evolved from behaviour modification which relied on rewards and consequences to change behaviour patterns. Many parents and teachers disliked this system. They objected to the heavy emphasis on adult direction and to the cold, impersonal conditioning of children. During the last twenty years, discipline has been transformed by two major social and educational movements. The first was the increasing desire for freedom of choice, not just for adults but for children as well. The second was the adoption of the discovery approach to learning based upon the premise that children learn concepts best when they discover the concepts for themselves.

If you teach exceptional children, then beware of today’s popular discipline. It relies on strategies that are the exact opposite of the way your students learn. The more you use these strategies, the less likely it is that your students will become responsible and cooperative. In fact, they are far more likely to become manipulative and non-compliant. In addition, many of them will underachieve, falling far below their true potential. 

From this came today’s popular discipline, a system which allows children to make many of their own choices in the belief that responsible behaviour can be learned by experiencing the outcomes of one’s decisions. The adult role is to use rewards and consequences, not to reinforce compliance, but to encourage good choices and discourage poor ones. This system is called ‘behaviour management’ and is, in effect, the discovery approach to discipline. For children, this has become a think-for-yourself world, a phrase which is often repeated these days.Well, if it’s a think-for-yourself, then think about this. For children to learn from the behaviour management approach, they must be endowed with a number of abilities. They must be able to reflect on their experiences, comprehend abstract concepts, problem-solve effectively and apply what they learn to future situations. If exceptional children could do this, they wouldn’t have been considered exceptional in the first place (gifted aside). Let’s take a closer look:

 

Reflect On This

 

For rewards and consequences to work, children must recall what has happened to them in various situations and use that knowledge to alter their behaviour when the situation reoccurs. They have to decide if their choices were successful. Did they take the rights and needs of others into account? Would they do the same thing again or choose a different course of action?  Clearly, children with learning disabilities or intellectual impairments would be hard pressed to respond appropriately.

If this is difficult for exceptional children in general, it is virtually impossible for impulsive children. Impulsive children, especially those severe enough t warrant the A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) label, act before they think. In other words, the moment their brains go into gear, impulsivity governs their thinking patterns and they mess up. These children are at risk in a think-for yourself world because, by definition, thinking is their problem, wonder A.D.D. children seem to be ‘coming out of the woodwork ‘ these days. For impulsive child: to succeed, they need more structure and routine so they can focus their thinking and do it in short ‘chunks’. They also require me adult direction and supervision than is provided by behaviour management.

 

Picasso Would Be Proud

 Perhaps Picasso could handle the abstract nature of today’s discipline but many exceptional children can’t. They are handicapped by the complete lack of a teaching component in-behaviour management. There are behavioural skills which children must learn, including cooperation, responsibility, conflict resolution, and courtesy. Behaviour management assumes that children will learn these skills from personal experience, from the outcomes of their choices. As we know, however, many exceptional children do not learn this way. They require direct instruction along with positive practice and constant review.Many teachers have become so concerned about this missing element that they have implemented social skills programs in their classrooms. Unfortunately, these programs are time consuming and have limited impact. Most teachers would clearly prefer to teach the skills within ordinary, everyday interactions between themselves and children. That approach, unfortunately, is not supported by today’s discipline. 

   

Who Cares?

 The Achilles’ heel of the reward and consequence system is that it only works if children care about the rewards and consequences. Many children learn to defeat the system by developing an immunity to consequences. “Send me to the office. I don’t care”. We hear those “I don’t care” words all the time. Children with behavioural exceptionalities are often well endowed with this attitude. It is one of the manipulative traits that they acquire as a means of getting their own way. 

 But these are just the children who acquire an immunity to consequences. What are we going to do about all the children who have a natural immunity because of all the pain and turmoil in their lives? Many of our exceptional children come from these situations. Maybe they’re neglected, or their family is breaking up, or their parents drink and fight. Add poverty and frequent relocation. The list goes on and on. Discipline fails these children because it relies on them to do something that they are incapable of doing. It relies on them to care.

When You Put It All Together

Many parents and teachers have noticed a dramatic rise in non-compliance and aggression over the past few years. Others worry that children are becoming increasingly manipulative and that they are underachieving in school. Behaviour management allows children to make these choices solely on their willingness to live with the consequences of their actions. 

We want more for our children. We want them to become responsible and cooperative. We want them to achieve everything that their potential-allows, it’s time to get discipline back on track. Real discipline isn’t about learning from your own experience, but from the experience of others. Real discipline limits children to the choices that are theirs to make. Discipline ensures that children are taught the skills and attitudes required for success in the modern world. We can’t do discipline by the discovery approach.

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