Reluctant Disciplinarian

"How often do teachers get to witness a totally out of control classroom? Rarely, if ever. Yet it is only by observing such a spectacle that teachers can truly appreciate how important discipline is” (Rubinstein 38). 

 

Thank you, Mr. Rubenstein. I could not agree more. As a matter of fact, I get to witness a totally out of control classroom on a daily basis and often find myself at the center of this mayhem. In the past week, one thought that has returned to my mind over and over again is, "Thank God I'm in the midst of such a horrible mess of a classroom right now because I will definitely not be a softy by the time the school year arrives." 

I burst out in raucous laughter when I read fellow English 11/12  teacher Mr. Gioia’s invitation to our class:

"Mr. Rubenstein says that it may be far more helpful to see a classroom out-of-control, and on that note I want to invite everyone to come to the 11/12 EN classroom at some point in the next two weeks and witness the absurd spectacle that is the power struggle between myself and my class of really garrulous rowdy boys (and a couple girls) who just wanna have fun!  Come one come all."  

I extend this invitation to any of my lessons, in which you may hear a student call me “Ms. Snitch” and see another student taking off his shoes and urging the girls around him to smell them and then protesting, “But my feet hurt!” when I demand he put his shoes back on immediately. You may also find a student asking me at the height of mutiny, “All these teachers in this school--have y’all taught before? Are you real teachers?” and I may respond hesitantly, “Yes, we are teachers.” I can only imagine the showdown that will happen this week when the students realize that Mr. Gioia and I will be teaching them all day every day with the exception of Ms. Stewart’s occasional lessons. 

I think I’ll have to spend the next two weeks trying to redeem myself as a “real teacher,” as Rubinstein describes. This means that on Monday, Mr. Gioia and I need to give a rules speech. Our rules have been treated as suggestions in the past two weeks. We need to practice procedures. I need to be decisive and able to answer a student with a one-word answer in two seconds. I need to whip out that textbook and not be afraid to bore them with worksheets and copying down notes. This is obviously what they expect real teachers to do, and we are not convincing them. 

One thing that I really disagreed with in the Reluctant Disciplinarian was Rubinstein’s comment that you should not waste your time on a parent who believes their child is perfect and won’t believe you when you say that he/she did something wrong. Rubinstein suggests, “Don’t waste your time with this type of parent. If you don’t accomplish anything in your five minute time limit, just end the call and try to avoid contact with that parent in the future” (86). I think that is completely unreasonable and a horrible solution. I don’t think you should ever cut off communication with a parent because every parent deserves to know about his/her child’s progress, and simply cutting off communication and ignoring the problem is not a solution. Document, document, document. If you have enough documentation, I think most parents will work with you. 

The Reluctant Disciplinarian came at a good time in my teaching journey. I’ve had enough experience in the classroom to be able to relate to the examples and also enough exposure to shenanigans that I am hungry for some classroom structure. Here’s to killing reluctance. 

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