The following is from an e-mail I received:

“I am reading the book right now and have already tried some things on my 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

“I’ve always used choices with her. It makes life simpler with little ones. But I have not always used contingencies. Saying, “If you clean up, you can go to the park” sounds so much better and works much faster than saying, “If you don’t clean up, then you can’t go to park.”

“It is so much easier for youngsters to take responsibility when you communicate in terms that are positive and prompt them to reflect on the choices they make.”

———-

Notice—as mentioned—that in addition to communicating in positive terms and prompting reflection, the underlying principle of choice is also involved.

All three principles are outlined in the teaching and parenting model.

Learning requires motivation, but motivation to learn cannot be forced. Highly effective teachers realize this, so they prompt students to want to put forth effort in their learning by creating curiosity, challenge, and interest in meaningful lessons. In addition, however, and especially with youth in poverty, these successful teachers also create positive relationships with their students by practicing positivity, choice, and reflection. These practices are part of the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model. This teaching model avoids approaches that inhibit motivation for responsibility and learning.

Following are 10 counterproductive approaches that are commonly used. Unfortunately, they are so counterproductive that they actually exacerbate the increasing dropout rate of students—especially in low economic areas.

1. BEING REACTIVE
Teachers too often become stressed by reacting to inappropriate behavior. It is far more effective to employ a proactive approach at the outset to inspire students to want to behave responsibly and then use a non-adversarial response whenever they do not.

2. RELIANCE ON RULES
Rules are meant to control, not inspire. Rules are necessary in games but when used between people, enforcement of rules automatically creates adversarial relationships. A more effective approach is to teach procedures and inspire responsible behavior through expectations and reflection.
See Rules.

3. AIMING AT OBEDIENCE
Obedience does not create desire. A more effective approach is to promote responsibility; obedience then follows as a natural by-product.

4. CREATING NEGATIVES
The brain thinks in pictures, not in words. When people tell others what NOT to do, the “don’t” is what the brain images. Example: “Don’t look at your neighbor’s paper!” Always communicate in positive terms of what you DO want. Example: “Keep your eyes on your own paper.”

5. ALIENATING STUDENTS
Even the poorest salesperson knows not to alienate a customer, but teachers too often talk to students in ways that prompt negative feelings. Negative feelings stop any desire of students to do what the teacher would like them to do. People do “good” when they feel “good,” not when they feel bad.

6. CONFUSING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT WITH DISCIPLINE
Classroom management is the teacher’s responsibility and has to do with teaching, practicing, and reinforcing procedures. Discipline, in contrast, is the student’s responsibility and has to do with self-control. Having clarity between these two is necessary for both preventing and solving problems. See Classroom Management.

7. ASSUMING
Too often, teachers assume students know how to do what is expected of them. A more effective approach is (a) teaching expectations and procedures, (b) having the students practice, (c) having students visualize the process, and later (d) reinforcing the procedure by having them practice again. This process is necessary in order to have students be successful in performing the activity.

8. EMPLOYING COERCION
This approach is least effective in changing behavior. Although teachers can CONTROL students temporarily, teachers cannot CHANGE students. PEOPLE CHANGE THEMSELVES, and the most effective approach for actuating students to change is to eliminate coercion.
NOTE: Noncoercion is not to be confused with permissiveness or not using authority.

9. IMPOSING CONSEQUENCES
Although consistency is important, imposing the same consequence on all students is the least fair approach. When a consequence is imposed—be it called “logical” or”natural”—students are deprived of ownership in the decision. A more effective and fairer approach is to ELICIT a CONSEQUENCE or a PROCEDURE TO REDIRECT IMPULSES that will help each student become more responsible. This can easily be accomplished by asking people if they would rather be treated as a group or as individuals. They will readily have a preference to be treated as individuals and have ownership in the decision that will help them, rather than hurt them.

10. RELYING ON EXTERNAL APPROACHES
We want to assist young people to be self-disciplined and responsible. Both traits require internal motivation, but rewarding behavior and imposing punishments are external approaches. They also place the responsibility on someone else to instigate a change and, thereby, fail the critical test: How effective are they when no one is around? The greatest reward comes from the self-satisfaction of one’s efforts. In addition, by rewarding kids with something they value (candy, stickers, prizes), we simply reinforce their childish values—when what we really hope to do is to teach them about values that will last a lifetime.

In contrast to these counterproductive approaches, the DISCIPLINE WITHOUT STRESS TEACHING MODEL uses approaches that eliminate counterwill, the natural response to coercion.

A more comprehensive list can be downloaded from Counterproductive Approaches.

I received the following communication:

“I’m a retired electrical engineer. I recently began working as a substitute teacher handling any subject from grade 3 up through grade 12.

“The biggest challenge is to keep the noise level down and the smart alecks from disrupting the class. Things have sure changed since I went to school!

“So I have approached the challenge by being strict. Smart alecks, mainly 12-year-old boys, end up standing facing the wall until they apologize for disrupting the class. I knew there had to be a better way, so I spent some time in the local library and discovered your book. I am going to teach 6th grade tomorrow and I plan to implement your suggestions in Chapter 3, ‘Raising Responsibility.’

“I like your web site and plan to buy the posters and your book. You are doing a great service to mankind by helping teachers help this generation of kids learn self-control.

“Thanks, C. ‘Rick’ Rickard Morgan Hill, CA”

———

For those who have a challenge with “noise control,”  following  is a simple procedure to teach. (Remember, the first step for success is to TEACH. NEVER ASSUME students know what you want without first demonstrating.)

TEACHING A PROCEDURE FOR NOISE LEVELS.
Teach students to adjust voice levels as indicated below:

Level zero – Silence – Show an index finger touching the thumb demonstrating a zero.

Level 1 – Whispering – Only the person you are whispering to should hear you. Hold up an index finger.

Level 2 – Speaking voice – The one you use when having a conversation. Show two fingers.

Level 3 – Group voice – The voice you use when giving a report to a group. Hold up three fingers.

Level 4 -Playground voice -The voice you use when you are playing games or shouting to your friends. Show four fingers.

Level 5 – SCREAMING – This voice is used when you are hurt or in danger. The only time you might use this voice when you are not in danger is when you are cheering for a sports team. Show five fingers.

Let students know before you start any activity the noise level you expect.

I received the following excerpt from a doctoral dissertation and reproduce it with the author’s permission:

“As you can tell from the dissertation excerpts I sent you, I have thoroughly researched your approach to discipline, as well as countless others. Unfortunately, the many other more traditional approaches have failed us as educators. I spent the past nine years in administration trying to make a difference in public education.

“But more importantly, I wanted to impact the course of public education positively. Catching kids doing something good and then reinforcing those acts by positive rewards is a component of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) that I experienced firsthand. As a matter of fact, I was delighted to spend my first two years in administration implementing a Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model in a Pennsylvania school district that was designated as one of only three districts in the state to field such a model with grant money for that specific purpose. I soon realized that any system of external manipulation or extrinsic positive rewards in a school utilizing the PBS model becomes outdated and ineffective. I discovered how some of the rewards can become negatives.

“Research certainly indicates that rewards or extrinsic motivations (as I write on page 73 of my dissertation– using “A’s,” praise, and other rewards) were ineffective over an extended period of time. These methods were counterproductive to the desired educational goals. Change should come from internal motivation. No artificial incentive can match the power of intrinsic motivation.”

–from a dissertation presented to the faculty of the School of Human Services Professions, Widener University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education by Joseph F. Cortese, February, 2008

This is the sixth and final part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University.

QUESTION:
Positive Behavior Support (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports or PBS/PBIS) is the discipline approach that is being mandated by many states. Do you have any thoughts on this approach?

RESPONSE:
I have numerous articles on my blog about the PBIS movement that was started to help special education students. This antiquated and backwards approach is based on the ideas of Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner. Without going into detail explaining the differences, they are “behaviorist” and have the following in common:

1. “Behaviorism is naturalistic.” This means that the material world is the ultimate reality, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws. Man has no soul and no mind, only a brain that responds to external stimuli.

2. Behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds to conditioning. The central tenet of behaviorism is that thoughts, feelings, and intentions (internal processes all), do not determine what we do. Our behavior is the product of our conditioning. We are biological machines and do not consciously act; rather, we react to stimuli.

3. Behaviorism teaches that we are not responsible for our actions. If we are mere machines, without minds or souls, reacting to stimuli and operating on our environment to attain certain ends, then we have no control or choice over ourselves.

4. Behaviorism is manipulative. It seeks not merely to understand human behavior, but to predict and control it. Skinner developed the idea of shaping behavior by using rewards. His approach was also to ignore behavior that he did not want “reinforced.” Therefore, inappropriate behavior was overlooked. Of course in the real world if an inappropriate behavior is ignored, such behavior is naturally reinforced. Simply by the fact of ignoring such behavior, the inference is that the behavior is acceptable.

In summary, the ethical consequences of behaviorism—upon which positive behavior support is based—are immensely damaging. Humans are stripped of responsibility, freedom, and dignity. We are reduced to purely biological beings to be “shaped” by those who are able to use the tools of manipulative behaviorism effectively.

Other counterproductive approaches are listed at my website.

Thanks for the opportunity to share.

This is the fifth part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University.

QUESTION:
School reform has now been a topic for generations but there seems to be little improvement. Any suggestions?

RESPONSE:
Any meaningful reform must affect the student-teacher relationship. I cannot think of a single school reform that started top down (and was a headline twenty years ago) that is still being used today.

Now education leaders have given their leadership over to government and business leaders. What reason do we have to think that legislators can improve education? On what basis can we assume that business is a model for education when every few months a new top-selling book is published on how to improve business? The Epilogue of my book goes into detail on this subject. It is important to understand that EFFORT IN LEARNING is different from EFFORT IN EMPLOYMENT.

As much as educators would like to think that we operate primarily on cognition, the reality is that we act more on our emotions. Think of any item you have purchased. Now reflect on whether you actually NEEDED that item or just WANTED it. If the item was bought because you LIKED it or WANTED it, then the motivation was emotional.

Therefore, until educators become wise enough to understand that education—at least in the elementary grades and in low socioeconomic areas—is based on relationships, there will always be a lack of student motivation. And the reason is simple. With every act of cognition there is an emotional involvement. I criticize you, and you feel bad. I compliment you, and you feel good. People do better when they feel good, not bad. Emotions drive attention. Attention drives learning. If a student is emotionally blocked, learning stops.

Because human beings act on emotions and because teaching and learning operate within relationships, teachers sell (think “share”) information. Learning cannot be forced. Students are continually making the choice “to buy” or “not to buy.” And in many cases how the student feels about the teacher has a great effect on whether or not to “make the purchase.” A teacher will not be successful in maintaining high standards AND motivating students to invest a lot of energy to learn if the students harbor negative feelings about the teacher.

This is the fourth part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University.

QUESTION:
What kind of assistance is found at your website?

RESPONSE:
MarvinMarshall.com is the foundational site that contains free information explaining the entire system. This site includes such links as The Discipline Without Stress® Teaching Model, The Hierarchy of Social Development, support links, and other links to implement the proactive, totally noncoercive (but not permissive) system .

My aim is to have teachers increase their joy of teaching, reduce stress, improve relationships, and become more effective.

In addition to this main website, there are other sites to help teachers and parents: Discipline Without Stress is the website for the best-selling book on discipline and learning. Three sections of the book are online: Classroom Meetings, Collaboration for Quality Learning, and Reducing Perfectionism.

groups.yahoo.com/group/DisciplineWithoutStress.com is used to post questions, share ideas, and give assistance. Discipline Answers provides a compilation of previously asked questions and posted answers categorized from the above Yahoo site.

About Discipline explains reasons why external approaches—such as rewarding appropriate behavior, telling students what to do, and punishing them if they don’t—are not used. These approaches do not promote long-lasting responsible behavior.

QUESTION:
I think that it is often imperative to review previously learned material. Do you find that some teachers need additional review?

RESPONSE:
A major—if not the major—learning mistake is that teachers assume they can teach something once, or have students read something once, or practice a procedure once and then expect students to remember it. This is simply contrary to how the brain operates. The brain images pictures, not words. The vast majority of material that is read is not remembered—unless it is visualized or experienced in ways that will go into long-term memory.

The same is true with a procedure. Unless a procedure is modeled, practiced, and reinforced in order to make new neural connections, it will be lost. It is rare to be exposed to something just once and retain it with 100 per cent accuracy.

Even though my approach is simple and becomes easy with practice, it also needs to be periodically reviewed. Just thinking with positivity is an example. If your supervisor informs you in the morning to stop by the office before leaving for the day, the mind almost automatically thinks, “What did I do wrong?” This is a negative and disempowering thought. But you have no idea what the conversation will be about. You assume the conversation will be a negative one. The point is that we often leap to negative thoughts. Because of this tendency to think in negative—rather than in positive—terms, we constantly need to review our self-talk.

Here is an example a teacher can use with students. A student’s self-talk can be, “I HAVE to go to school today.” The negative talk prompts a negative, disempowering feeling. Notice the difference when the student’s self-talk is, “I GET to go to school today.” Young people can be taught to think and self-talk in positive terms. But this, too, also needs to be reviewed and reinforced.

Continual practice in thinking and communicating in positive and empowering ways is the way that this new approach becomes the brain’s default. The old negative habit needs to be replaced by the newer, in this case, positive one.

This is the third part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University.

QUESTION:

Your book “Discipline without Stress” has been out there for several years. Any idea as to how many schools use and refer to it?

RESPONSE:
Since the book was published in 2001, 50,000 copies have been sold so far. The next 10,000 copies will be off the press within the next few weeks. I’ve heard it said that the book is perhaps the best ever published on how to discipline and promote learning.

The comments on the homepage for the book give an indication of its popularity. Here is an example I received from a high school science teacher:

“I ordered your book a few years ago. Loved it! Loaned it. And lost it. So I ordered it again. This is the best book I have read on teaching in the classroom.”–Laura Fair, Science Teacher, Kenowa Hills High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

There are a number of schools that have a book club devoted to discussions of the book. When I presented to the Canada’s Alberta Teachers’ Association, the very large room was overflowing with members of, as the association labeled it, the “Marvin Marshall Book Club.” People brought their books for me to autograph and many told me that they were embarrassed by the number of postal notes attached to so many pages. This is a common occurrence since the book is not written as a traditional education book. The entire book deals with “how to” rather than the usual, “what needs to be done.”

The book shares a number of extremely useful concepts that teachers and parents can share with young people.  Here are just two:

Perfection is a burden no human being should ever carry. Excellent work, superior work, outstanding work, yes—but never perfection! You cannot learn and be perfect at the same time.

Regardless of the situation (stress at home? troubles at home?), stimulation (“He hit me first”), or urge (“I couldn’t help myself”), you still have the choice as to your response. You may not be able to change the situation, stimulation, or urge, but when you walk into the classroom you are making a choice—to learn or not to learn.

This latter point was emphasized in my commentary in Education Week, “Rethinking Our Thinking on Discipline: Empower Rather than Overpower.” Of all the ideas in the article, the editor chose to highlight the following:

“Teaching young people about choice-response thinking—that they need not be victims—may be one of the most valuable thinking patterns we can give them.”

To be more specific in answering the question, I have no idea how many people have read or used the book. However, many people have told me to advise others: “NEVER lend the book to someone else because you will never get it back.”

This is the second part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University.

QUESTION:
I have enjoyed your Oliver Wendell Holmes story about the issue as to where we are going. With all this emphasis on Annual Yearly Progress and the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) , where indeed are we heading? Can you tell us the story to set the context for this interview?

RESPONSE:

As the train conductor made his way down the aisle collecting tickets, the forgetful Oliver Wendell Holmes saw him coming. The Associate Justice reached into his pocket—first into one, then into another, then into a third pocket. When the conductor arrived in front of the then frantic Justice Holmes, the conductor said, “That’s all right, Mr. Holmes. I know who you are. When you arrive home and find your ticket, just mail it in.” Mr. Holmes replied, “You don’t understand. It’s not the ticket I’m concerned about; it’s where I am going.”

Too often educators make policies without considering where implementation of the policy leads them. Just consider all the education reforms in the last few years. NCLB is a perfect example. Classes that enrich for growth—such as art, music, science, and physical education—are being eliminated. Yet these are courses that can assist in improving skills in many areas—including math and reading. NCLB lacks any emphasis on creating a responsible citizenry. Learning how to read and write alone are not sufficient for a functioning democracy. As an aside, NCLB is based on a negative foundation. No educational policy based on negativity endures for very long.

QUESTION:
Can you tell us about your free monthly newsletter entitled, “Promoting Responsibility & Learning”? What kinds of topics are addressed?

Subscribers now number over 15,000 from around the world. Wherever I have presented (43 of the United States and in 17 countries on five continents), people are drawn to what I share because of its common sense, simplicity, and effectiveness. The newsletter includes the following topics:

1. Welcome
2. Promoting Responsibility
3. Increasing Effectiveness
4. Improving Relationships
5. Promoting Learning
6. Parenting
7. Discipline without Stress (DWS)
8. Testimonials and Reviews

Subscription is free, and anyone can unsubscribe at anytime. Apparently, an ever-growing number of people find the investment in reading the newsletter worth their time. To subscribe, a person simply enters the e-mail address in my website.  It is a double opt-in system to prevent spam. E-mails are never shared.

This is the first part in a series of interviews about Where We Are Going with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University

QUESTION:
Your books and teaching model are used  quite extensively in schools nowadays. To what do you attribute this?

RESPONSE:
The Discipline Without Stress approach uses common sense. It is a total system. It is both simple and comprehensive, employing universal principles that apply to people of all ages. It promotes both responsible behavior and a desire to WANT to put forth effort to learn. Finally, it improves relationships and increases effectiveness.

I also believe that teachers are realizing more and more  that their most significant influence on young people shows outside of class times.  Successful teachers empower their students. This is one reason that I do not use external manipulators or coercive threats and punishments. These approaches are totally ineffective when no one is around to monitor behavior. Besides, an increasing number of teachers understand that rewarding young people for expected standards of conduct is not only counterproductive for promoting responsible behavior but also fraught with problems. More on external approaches is available at AboutDiscipline.com.

Another factor may be that a number of nationally-used textbooks in teacher preparation have devoted chapters to my system and indicate the effectiveness of it. This has led to an increase in interest among new teachers who are sharing the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model noted above. Following is a communication I received in this regard:

It was more difficult to teach my course before your book came to my attention, but now the student teachers can see that your ideas, strategies, and practices make sense and provide results. As the student teachers get their credentials and begin their teaching careers without using rewards and punishments, I am hopeful that we will have an exponential effect of also having more classrooms in which to place new student teachers so that the theory and practice are paired. The student teachers’ conviction and enthusiasm to the approach has also influenced some of our current cooperating teachers to buy your book.

Thank you for your work, and I look forward to getting your newsletter.
Joy~
Joy L. Pelton
Folsom/Cordova Center Coordinator
Department of Teacher Education
California State University, Sacramento