Improving Student Behavior

[ysabetwordsmith]

This article suggests ways of improving student behavior at school.  They're less worse than average, but unlikely to work.  Things that would actually work:

1) Meticulously teach children the right way to do things.  Now you see why Montessori schools don't have much trouble in this area, and why their teachers get paid more.  Public schools can't be arsed to do this, and then wonder why they have problems.

2) Feed them.  Hungry kids have emotional regulation approaching nil.  But since life is a paid privilege not a right in America, only people who can pay for food are allowed to have it.  Programs purporting to feed the hungry are woefully insufficient, and school food is notorious for poor quality and nutrition.

3) Exercise them.  Encourage walking and biking to school, followed by plentiful recess.  After they have burned off excess energy, they will naturally sit still and shift toward intellectual interest.  Instead, schools are banning children from walking or biking, and shortening or eliminating recess.  This does nerve damage, as the body and brain cannot develop properly without vigorous motor stimulation.  

There are, of course, many other factors such as poverty, broken homes, and so on but those are harder to affect from the school direction.  The above methods are things that can be done in school.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I managed it with seriously disabled kids so it should certainly be possible with everyone else!

Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, my mother taught special ed for a while.

*ponder* It just now occurred to me to wonder how much of that training she applied to me and my eclectic needs, and to keeping a regular classroom smooth.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I've read that small children need to be calibrated, which is the point of bouncing them on legs and them spinning.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Absolutely true. Forcing them to remain still, punishing them when they move, is as brutal and destructive as footbinding -- with similar results, they have trouble walking later in life. They're less stable and less healthy. >_<

More insidiously: why bother breaking their feet when you can break their desire to move?

And then adults bitch when their children are fat and indolent. If you don't want them to be like that, let them move while they still want to.

[(Anonymous)]

My parents used to run me like a puppy at rest stops on long car trips. This was before most of the fancy handheld gaming systems, I think...early 90s?
Teachers can incorporate some kinesthetic excersises for learning. A good lesson for personal space was "you should be able to wiggle your arms in a circle without hitting anyone. This is your lersonal space." The other trick my mom used was 'zombie arms' - if you can walk like a zombie in line, you are not in anyone's personal space bubble.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>My parents used to run me like a puppy at rest stops on long car trips. <<

LOL yes me too! Also "If you have so much energy, take it outside" is excellent advice for the wiggles. People need to move.

>> A good lesson for personal space was "you should be able to wiggle your arms in a circle without hitting anyone. This is your lersonal space." <<

That's the "Circle of Safety" for working with knives or other risky things.

Did you know personal space differs by culture? Japanese people have it very short. Russians have it very long. If you put a Japanese person and a Russian person in a room and neither of them know this, the Japanese will chase the Russian around the room. It's hilarious, if you're not responsible for keeping them from strangling each other. :D If you do know about proxemics and kinesics, you can solve that kind of issue simply by parking yourself and letting the other person adjust the space to their comfort level. This is easier if you can find a mark on the carpet to keep your toes on.

In magic, you can learn to control your energy enough to make your personal space larger or smaller.

Re: Thoughts

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I've learned from experience that Midde Eastern personal space is about 6in. I also ended up inadvertantly demonstrating to a bunch of Middle Eastern kids once 'if you crowd and squish the shy American, she will stop doing the interesting thing you are watching a and go hide somewhere.' Once I came back, I had a bit more space.
Also:
https://www.reddit.com/r/polandball/comments/2p30rl/personal_space/

Re: Thoughts

[cmcmck]

Strange though that Brits see Americans as invasive of personal space and I don't think Brits have a big personal space.

Re: Thoughts

[zeeth_kyrah]

I think Brits attach sound and/or emotion to their personal space. So noisy people, whether by voice or anxiety, may feel invasive to them.

[prixmium]

In some ways, I think elementary school kids get to move around more than when I was a kid in terms of being on their feet in the classroom. However, this does seem to be at the cost of dedicated recess. As you mention, kids aren't really taught what the appropriate thing to do is when they are in a state of waiting for something else to happen, especially. I just started an interim position with second graders, and I am just not great with that particular age group. This class isn't as difficult as some I have dealt with, and I think that is owing in part to the fact that they seem to be in a habit of having semi-frequent short breaks to just talk to each other and play with dry-erase boards if nothing else. I really hope that my approach to just trying to not insist on them not moving around when waiting for the next activity after they have finished their work isn't going to blow up in my face before their regular teacher gets back.

The school system I am working for right now provides free breakfast and lunch to all students eighth grade and below without checking income at all. They have to pay for extra portions or treats/junk food in addition to their regular food, and charging anything is not allowed as a result of this, but I think that's a fair trade-off given resources. They also have this thing in the elementary schools where if a child is required to take three items to complete a meal but they hate something they had to take, they put it in an area that's guarded by one of the cafeteria-watchers-of-little-ones and other students can come up and get any of that food for free, first-come-first-serve instead of having that food be automatically wasted.

High school students are expected to pay for their food, but income-based free lunch program is still available to them.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> In some ways, I think elementary school kids get to move around more than when I was a kid in terms of being on their feet in the classroom. However, this does seem to be at the cost of dedicated recess.<<

Huh. That might vary -- I've heard of schools letting kids out of their desks for little stretch breaks, which is better than nothing.

>> As you mention, kids aren't really taught what the appropriate thing to do is when they are in a state of waiting for something else to happen, especially.<<

They need things to do most of the time, unless they are tired enough that they just flop. This is because the brain develops slowly over time, and while small children excel at pretending, they don't have the bandwidth to entertain themselves silently inside their own heads until near puberty. Even I couldn't do it much before then -- I knew how but there just wasn't room on the wetdrive to run those routines more than briefly.

However, self-occupation skills are things that can be taught and learned. If they kids don't know any yet, teach them. There are many interesting things that can be done quietly without bothering others.

>> I just started an interim position with second graders, and I am just not great with that particular age group.<<

Bummer.

>> This class isn't as difficult as some I have dealt with, and I think that is owing in part to the fact that they seem to be in a habit of having semi-frequent short breaks to just talk to each other and play with dry-erase boards if nothing else.<<

Sensible.

>> I really hope that my approach to just trying to not insist on them not moving around when waiting for the next activity after they have finished their work isn't going to blow up in my face before their regular teacher gets back.<<

I hope so too.

Do you have things like books or crayons they can use? A few classes I was in had assorted things that people could do if they finished the work. Since I finished before the teacher was even done handing things out, I spent most of my time on other stuff. It drove her crazy, but what was I supposed to do? It was work meant for children and I was reading at an adult level. It didn't take me any longer than it would've taken her.

>>The school system I am working for right now provides free breakfast and lunch to all students eighth grade and below without checking income at all. <<

That's great.

>>They also have this thing in the elementary schools where if a child is required to take three items to complete a meal but they hate something they had to take, they put it in an area that's guarded by one of the cafeteria-watchers-of-little-ones and other students can come up and get any of that food for free, first-come-first-serve instead of having that food be automatically wasted.<<

That's better than nothing, but I'm strongly against forcing children to take things they don't want. They aren't going to eat it unless you literally force-feed them, and it actually teaches bad associations with food and eating. That's exactly the kind of damage most prone to happen when you warehouse children instead of raising them properly, and then America wonders why people have eating problems. :/ Some schools are worse -- throwing away food because student can't pay is child abuse, and that's becoming more common.