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Adventures in 7th Grade Discipline

The power of peer disapproval

By Graham StewartPublished 4 years ago 2 min read
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One of my classes is pretty verbose and rowdy. The code word is "social." I have not had much success in getting AND maintaining their attention this year. This class lags behind my other sections on a consistent basis when I am presenting lessons just because there are more interruptions from the class. Some interruptions are unwanted, like stupid 7th grade jokes about Uranus. Some are ok, like questions about how the material relates to them and other interesting tangents.

Yesterday they crossed the line. After class I noticed that a full on spitball war had been waging in the back corner of my class. The floor looked like downtown Cairo. I had a pretty good idea who the guilty parties were but I had no proof. So I decided on a new disciplinary model to deal with the problem.

I sent an email to the class, and their parents, informing them that they had all been assigned lunch detention on Friday. Which is not a big deal because it is for only 15 minutes and it does not go into the computer (no permanent record). I asked the guilty parties to come forward and take responsibility.

That night I got six emails telling me who the guilty parties were and begging to get out of detention. The culprits came to me before class and confessed, thinking that I would call off the group punishment.

Not a chance.

I talked to the class about responsibility and respect (and all the other boring crap adults say) and I informed them that the group detention would proceed as planned. The future lawyers started arguing their case, which mostly consisted of "that's not fair." I agreed and told them that it wasn't fair for me and the custodian to pick up their saliva-laden wads of gunk either.

We then had short discussion about democracy vs. authoritarian rulers and how they were different, and then I asked them what kind of leader I was being (gotta keep those social studies standards front and center).

I told them that in reality, the people you should blame for this are the people who made the mess. They are all serving detentions because of the behavior of a few. And then I put the cherry on top. I said, "So why don't we all thank those two for giving us all detention tomorrow." I have never seen 27 kids glare in unison at the same target, before but I will never forget it. I will also never forget that the two guilty ones looked like they wanted to crawl under their desks to get away.

All my threats, pleas, and consequences are nothing compared to the disapproval of their peers. I may be onto something.

I hope the bad behavior stops after this. If it doesn't, maybe I'll let the guilty ones off next time and punish the rest of the kids.

Note: the guilty students have been give official administrative detentions as well as the group lunch detention.

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