Love and Logic Teaching Approach
The first classroom management approach that we will look at is “Love and Logic” which was developed by Charles Fay, a Ph.D student, Jim Fay, an educational expert, and Foster Cline, a child psychiatrist. This classroom approach is also more generally known as a way to communicate and work with children and students. Since this approach is so flexible, it can be used with other classroom management strategies in a specific classroom and in a whole school. There are many components of “Love and Logic” that can be applied to various situations in a classroom. Let’s look at the main goal of “Love and Logic”, which is to promote positive, respectful and healthy relationships between students and educators (Jones et. al., 24).
The main goal of “Love and Logic” is in line with what Jones et. al. says is the most important part of classroom management, student-teacher relationships: “student-teacher relationships are the single most important component of classroom management and an essential part of creating a highly effective community of learners” (24). One of the easiest ways to develop student-teacher relationships is by being positive and respecting your students. One way that “Love and Logic” encourages this is by suggesting teachers to implement “gold” statements in their classroom. “Gold” statements are positive statements that show empathy for students but also encourage them to work out problems independently to ultimately develop self-worth and self-responsibility (Fay & Funk, 27). Fay & Funk contrast “gold” statements with “garbage” statements which are idle statements that tell students what to do but do not provide much meaning or power behind them (27). They go on to say how an effective teacher will not only provide empathy and understanding, but they will eliminate anger from their voice and resist lecturing a student during a behavior problem or academic trial (36). You may be wondering how this one component of “Love and Logic” helps improve the classroom environment. According to Fay & Funk (1995), students think for themselves with support from an adult. Therefore, students are thinking and learning about decisions and consequences all while building positive, respectful relationships with adults and educators who believe that they can succeed in the classroom. With students becoming more self-regulated and independent, they will more than likely become more engaged with their school experience since “school disengagement is [mostly] linked to a lack of opportunities for students to fulfill their needs for independence and self-determination” (Rubin, 43).
What are other components related to “Love and Logic” classroom management? When using “Love and Logic” in your classroom, students will receive immediate consequences for their actions that do not follow classroom expectations. Consequences and limits within the classroom are handled without anger and often involve student choice. This approach to handling discipline keeps students attention and helps students to solve their own problems with encourage and help from a trusted adult. This also translates to real-world problems that students either encounter or will encounter in the future such as bullying, social issues, familial conflicts, and more. Overall, the components involved in the “Love and Logic” classroom management approach are put together to make classroom management simple, empathic towards student’s learning and social needs and to make classroom learning fun and meaningful.
Watch this video clip of Foster Cline, one of "Love and Logic"'s founding researchers. He is giving a talk about how "Love and Logic" can build children's character by giving them a chance to be independent and self-reliant when handling tough problems in their lives.
