Discipline With Dignity for Challenging Youth by Richard Curwin

Author:Richard Curwin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Solution Tree Press
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

In-and Out-of-School Factors

In addition to addressing basic needs, long-term strategies should also consider the in-school and out-of-school factors that affect behavior. For example, many students experience overwhelming stress in their lives. This stress can significantly affect their behavior and academic achievement. As educators, we must have the courage to help our students handle their stressful lives even when the strategies for doing so may be unpopular with our peers. A number of teachers at our workshops have quietly, almost secretly, shared the fact that they have found relaxation techniques, such as guided visualization, to be very effective in helping a child relax and in promoting a calmer classroom that is more conducive to learning.

A 5-year study reported in The Journal of Criminal Justice (Bleick & Abrams, 1987) investigated the effects of using meditation in a maximum-security prison. Inmates who learned a meditation technique experienced significant reductions in stress, aggression, and mental disorders. Violence in the prison decreased, and the rate of return among participating inmates was 30–35% less than for four other treatment groups. Similar studies have noted equally impressive results. Rozman (1994) has argued that many hyperactive children are so sensitive that they simply cannot handle the huge number of stimuli constantly bombarding and overwhelming them. She has discovered that the practice of meditation helps them concentrate, focus their sensitivities, and reduce their hyperactivity.

Although we do not regularly practice meditation techniques or specifically endorse them, schools should be unapologetic when they do things designed to change the person within so that he or she will be more peaceful, productive, and successful. A 1993 American Psychological Association report on violence concluded that school programs that teach social and emotional skills like managing anger, negotiating, adopting another child’s perspective, and thinking of alternative solutions to disagreements were particularly effective in reducing violence. These are all long-term programs that require repeated presentations, practice, and curriculum time in order to work. The positive results of these programs, however, are also likely to be more lasting.

The most important long-term discipline strategy is for students to learn how to be responsible and to make responsible choices on their own. Self-discipline is the most important trait to develop within a child. The best tools for developing responsibility are using limits, offering choices, and providing consequences.

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