Bill Rogers says 'Discipline can be the hardest part of a demanding job.'
Daily, teachers face defiance, baiting, procrastination, argumentative behaviour, swearing and aggression, as well as the more typical disruptive behaviours like calling out and task avoidance.
In this environment, it is easy to meet like with like and many behaviour policies reflect this approach. many schools have a zero tolerance to what is classed 'misbehaviour' and the consequences of saying no, or acting in an oppositional manner are robust, to say the least.
Dr. Steven Brownlow says 'All emotions provide useful information. There are no negative emotions.' I wonder if the same can be said of behaviour?
So here's the problem; should behaviour management be an outside force imposed on individuals who don't meet a set of pre-determined standards or should it be a supportive coaching and education process that builds self-esteem, self-reliance, resilience and the ability to understand one's feelings and manage them, even if it needs some adult assistance in the early stages.
Personally, I feel we have continued to use the consequence programme throughout society without really relating the individual issues to the person and helping them to resolve some of them. It's why we see such difficulties with adult relationships and so many split families; lack of ability or capacity to self-resolve.
If we continue to turn the screw, there's much more to come on the misery-go-round of life.