Discipline. The crock and the flail. The yin and the yang. The allowance and the resistance. The balancing of certain apparent opposites create a gate which will cause an environment and ecology for the life to thrive in, be challenged in towards a specific target, or one that will foster anything goes without a lot of development, or one that can be harmful and choking of the life. There are also many that can form an atmosphere of varying degrees and combinations of the ones already mentioned.
When a student is singled out because of some disruptive behavior, there is a combination of feelings that happen in the ecology. If the other students are not clear why the person is being singled out, this causes confusion and uneasiness. If it is clear why the person is being singled out and reprimanded, there can be a sense of relief in the other students because they are irritated with the disruptions themselves. These are just a couple of scenarios.
To have an ecology that wants growth and development towards a specific goal, there are balances to consider. How should one behave? In the case of the student, is making regular smarty pants remarks useful? I should say not. For when remarks diffuse and make a mockery of very important points, it infects the living organism that the ecology is. The ecology is only as strong as the person who is in charge is. But what can be stronger, is an ecology that is maintained by mutual agreement from everybody involved. In this case, students and teacher.
It is important to have humanity and allowance for all sorts of things. But it is vital for a teacher to be observant of patterns that cause to disrupt for the sake of disrupting whether it is conscious or not in the student. For any environment to sustain a level of cohesiveness and provide the optimum for opportunity, inspiration and growth, basic standards are needed. The teacher needs to uphold them. Not everyone, meaning the students in this case, will be able to understand all things if they have not been in serious pursuit for a prolonged period of time and have had the chance to get experience in dealing with many situations that arise. This is where the vital A.R.T. of the student comes in which is Appreciation, Respect and Trust. The A.R T. of the teacher in this case is Accomplished, Rsponsible, Tacticis.
More on this soon..
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1 comment:
Thanks Norman. This is timely for me, as I am right now being forced to take a hard line with a first-year student. It's uncomfortable for me, but I have to remind myself that the best thing for everybody involved, INCLUDING HIM, is for me to draw the line very clearly and not give confusing signals.
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