Discipline with Dignity
The second classroom management approach that we will look at is called “Discipline with Dignity”. This approach was founded by Dr. Richard Curwin and Dr. Allen Mendler and is currently being used in 12 different countries around the world. Similarly to “Love and Logic”, this approach is flexible and can be applied in a classroom setting or a whole-school setting. “Discipline with Dignity” encourages responsible thinking, cooperation, mutual respect and shared decision-making. You may be thinking that both of these classroom management strategies seem very similar, and you are right! The core goals of each management strategy share many characteristics and it is up to you to see which components of each strategy you like and/or dislike and how you can apply them to your future classroom. Let’s look more in depth to “Discipline with Dignity” and we can see what makes this approach unique.
The main goal of “Discipline with Dignity” is to creative positive motivation for children to adopt behaviors that allow them to be successful in their own way in the classroom. When implementing “Discipline with Dignity” it is important to realize that this approach will not yield results immediately but will create optimal results in a gradual way if done correctly. The best way for a teacher to begin to implement this approach is to build connections with students. Like “Love and Logic”, showing respect and empathy to students is crucial when gaining their trust. By building connections with students, teachers are beginning the process of behavior management and the prevention of problems in the classroom. Since “Discipline with Dignity” encourage student growth and self-responsibility, making a connection with a trusted adult will give a student someone to look up to or to ask advice from when making their own decisions. Similarly to the "Love and Logic" approach to classroom management, student choice is held in high regard in order to develop student responsibility and self-worth. That being said, the following quote from Butchart (2005) is representative of classroom management strategies that are quite different from both "Love and Logic" and "Discipline with Dignity": "Ironically, perhaps tragically, throughout the last two centuries and more, the ends of classroom management have seldom included democratic considerations" (180).
“Discipline with Dignity” also stresses the importance of creating a safe and effective learning environment for students. While making connections can be a way to make students feel safe in the classroom, so is the physical layout of the classroom. Unfortunately, “teachers are not often trained in modifying the classroom environment to encourage academic engagement and discourage disruptive behavior” (Fullerton & Guardino, 11). Modifications to the classroom environment are an easy way to potentially impact a student’s learning abilities and show that you care about their ability to succeed in your classroom. This slight modification may go a long way and can prevent student behavior issues that may arise due to a lack of functionality within the classroom.
As you can see, there are many similarities between the “Love and Logic” and “Discipline with Dignity” classroom management approaches such as showing empathy towards students’ conflicts and behavioral issues, giving students opportunities to be independent, providing choice in the classroom and by simply caring. The differences between these two strategies are more in the details of how teachers implement these components and the main goals of the approaches.
Your turn: Do the components of these approaches match your optimal classroom management style? Do they challenge your ideas about classroom management? How? Reflect on these questions as you read about my thoughts regarding these two management strategies.
