This is the time of year when many students begin to push against the stated limits, which can create
frustration for the staff. When all else fails, turn to your students. It may actually be best to seek their input long before "all else
fails." The older we get the more bias and subjective analysis creeps in. Our students' lack of worldly experience offers an innocence
that can peel away the layers of failed attempts and prejudice.
As parents and teachers, we often guess about what would be the most effective deterrents and most effective
encouragements. Our students' responses to our offerings can reinforce or discourage our choices. Individualizing incentives may be
cumbersome but would offer the greatest potential return. Avoid extrinsic motivators for the vast majority of students as these will compromise
our goal of developing intrinsic motivation.
The verbiage that students use may not be sophisticated. The suggestions may not line up with research. It is,
however, incumbent upon us to consider the perspectives of our students. Students who are intrinsically motivated may actually offer us less
insight than our most challenged students. The collective experiences and perspectives of our tougher students offer us a looking glass.
They are able to dissect and differentiate punishments from consequences. They can help us to refine our structure. Black and white to us
is gray and ambiguous to these students.
See the "school" experience through the eyes of your most challenging student and the confusion of why they do what they
do will disappear. What has long been considered aberrant behaviors are actually reasonable responses to ambiguous expectancies. This can
be enlightening and encouraging. We will find encouragement in the knowledge that when we learn to set the proper structure and construct
reasonable consequences the freedom to teach is at hand.
