Re: discipline takes the personal touch

More | Report Post

On 9/30/11, muinteoir wrote:
>> Ahhh, but you cannot know that for sure. A student,
>> knowing your
>> attitude, would never tell you how much they lack
>> respect for you. While you may control their actions
>> because of the dire consequences, you may not have
>> their respect. They may think very little of you, but
>> very much of the fact they do not want the
>> consequences you are willing to dole out for lack of
>> compliance. That is not respect.
>
> But it is respect for my rules and classroom
> management, which is on point to the O.P's post. And my
> experience, given the comments made by graduates from
> my classes, would be contrary to the above. Unless they
> were lying, which given the consistency of my past
> students' assessments of my class, would not be likely.

No, it is not respect for your rules. It is the avoidance
of harsh consequences on part of the students. If you had
respect for your rules, you would not need to have
consequences.

Also, students do lie on the assessments of teachers that
force compliance by harsh punishments. They are not stupid
people. There is no benefit in it for them to tell the
truth because black and white attitude shown tells the
students that any comments would fall on deaf ears and be a
waste of time. You may have that one rebel every now and
then that will lay it out there, but most of the students
will comply and give you what you want to hear because
doing so would be futile. This holds even more true if
there is any possibility you will have the student again in
the future or are known friends with other teachers.

Posts on this thread, including this one