Management

Leaving behind the testing controversy, I write today about Reform #2: Management, not Discipline.

My friend Kia, an education professor at Wheelock, recently said to the Sunday School teachers at our church, “If you’re thinking about discipline, it’s usually because you haven’t done a good job with management.  You’re not managing your classroom well, especially if the same “discipline” problems come up over and over.”

Or something like that.  I wasn’t taking notes.

She asked us to think about the times in our classes where kids are most likely to be disruptive and off task.  Then she told us to change what’s happening during those times.  Duh!

I’ve known this since my own teacher ed days, but I forgot it when it came to homeschool.  Half of the time that the boys are wreaking havoc it’s because I’m not well prepared.  I don’t have the supplies out and need two minutes to pull them together.  Bam!  They’re wrestling on the floor and I’m furious.  Or I answer the phone, they start throwing the globe across the room, knock over glass of water, and we spend the next ten minutes cleaning it up.

So I’m going to write down everything we need to do for the upcoming week and prepare it all on Sunday night.  And when that’s not possible, I’m going to give the boys something engaging to do until I’m ready.

I know. You’re underwhelmed.  But this is very different from how I think about parenting.  What parent thinks on a Saturday afternoon: “I need to have my materials ready so everyone stays engaged in a productive task.”

I guess I kept thinking that it’s not too much to ask my kids to sit quietly for five minutes while I photocopy the maps we are going to fill in.  But Kia reminded me that it’s probably not to much to ask that the teacher come to class prepared.  Even when the teacher is Mom.