Why have I been asked to talk about discipline? Who has the messiest desk? Who has the noisiest and probably wildest classes? Perhaps the hope is that if I look at the area, I will reform!

So I had a look at what Vijay said about it. He said, “How do you discipline the mind? Only by incorporating into one’s character the principle of patience.” (Total Education — The Obvious Solution).

We tend to think of discipline as a punitive thing: “I will beat myself up, get up at 4.00 am and do my practices!” and “This child has done a terrible thing. There must be consequences!”

If you think, “The children ought to wear hats, especially since I asked them yesterday”, you will get angry and anger is counter-productive. I’ve tried it, as you all know! However, if we think from the principles of patience and tolerance, we think, “These children do not want to wear hats, it will take a long time to train them, too. I must be patient and clever and persistent.” So this type of thinking immediately takes out the anger.

But there do need to be limits and you need to be clear about this; for example, in Drama “nobody must get hurt” and “exercises have a purpose and structure”. In Art, I instituted free classes in which students can develop their own ideas, and altered these classes with structured exercises which teach skills and concepts of which I think they should be aware.

In the classroom, flexibility is terribly important!

One of the problems associated with disciplining children is that we can create guilt. If discipline is administered with love, patience and understanding, I think this can be avoided. In a sense, we have to do this with ourselves as well, because it all starts from here.

Ultimately, the students need to discipline themselves. They have to face up to the consequences of their actions. We should not shield them from the consequences. In fact, if we could be creative, we could even set up situations in which they will suffer the consequences which will lead them to their own conclusions and hence modify their own behaviour, as happens at Outward Bound camps.

In practising discipline, I think it is important to take on things at which you think you can be successful, such as “Being patient with yourself”. I know the Secondary’s don’t wear their uniforms well (but I can cope with all of that!) so I just decided to concentrate on hats. Being as bald as I am, when I go into the sunlight I immediately look for my hat. So I am good at this myself. I tranferred this habit to being consistent about children wearing their hats in the playground. I have got so good at this that now I can accept seeing shirts hanging out and even sneakers being worn when the children are in class!

Zac was laughing at me the other day and I asked him why and he said: “You haven’t asked me to put my hat on once this year!” I said, “Well, isn’t that great!”

		Neil Rasmussen is senior drama teacher at the School of Total Education. and has taught at the School since 1984. He is a former lecturer in drama at the State College of Victoria, Rusden.

This article is based on a talk given at a teachers seminar and was originally published in the March 2000 edition of the SOTE Newsletter. (Published on web site: September 2001)

Copyright The School of Total Education 2001. This page last generated Thu, 7 Mar 2002. Web site by The Design Group.