The math class is about to begin. This time, the program will be the famous and brilliant Pythagorean theorem. The teacher is competent, passionate and ready. She has come up with lots of tricks to help people understand the theorem, to show its beauty and usefulness.
But, this time again, things are not looking very good. Paulo and Mathias had an argument in the hallway and it’s continuing in class. She had to intervene. Josée still has her cell phone hidden on her lap and is playing who knows what. The usual rude guy has just insulted the girl next to him, who answers. Another one is badmouthing her French teacher, with lots of bad words to boot. Without saying anything about the few students who, no matter what she does, aren’t very interested in mathematics. And Christophe who arrives late once again.
Of course, to understand and appreciate the Pythagorean theorem, one must concentrate, be attentive, forget the surrounding world for a moment and enter the one to which the famous Greek invites us. Here, the conditions are decidedly not met.
As a bonus, the news reports another factor that makes teaching difficult. Here is a trainee who was fiercely insulted and threatened by students… because he is homosexual. And there are many cases of violence or intimidation against teachers. Sometimes by parents…
An old story
Indiscipline and disrespect are not new in education. Listen to Plato who, in The RepublicBook VIII, is concerned about the moment when “the father becomes accustomed to treating his son as his equal and to fearing his children, that the son becomes equal to his father and has neither respect nor fear for his parents”, where “the master fears his disciples and flatters them” and where “the disciples have little regard for masters and pedagogues”.
Added to these difficulties in teaching are today all these opportunities to lose concentration to which social media subject us, the harmful effects of which are now well documented.
Faced with all this, a solution is periodically proposed: the return of discipline. This time, it is taken up by the young people of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), and the Prime Minister has promised to act and to ask the Minister of Education to set up a “plan on discipline in schools.”
While everyone agrees on the importance of discipline in schools and the reasons for its implementation, what it actually means is a matter of debate.
Nobody—fortunately!—wants the return of corporal punishment, slaps or dunce’s caps. But what do we mean by “discipline” and how do we exercise it? Should we impose the use of the formal “vous”, as some are asking, which is in any case, in my opinion, commonly practiced? Should we impose uniforms? How should the guilty be punished? Should we impose training on them? If so, what training?
The issue raised is serious. The stakes are high. I suggest that, to see more clearly, we look at what credible research teaches us. Because it has important things to say about this.
An idea to consider
The method is called, in French, Positive Behavior Support (PBS) — in English: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). It is now implemented in many schools, particularly in the United States, but also in the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France. I’m probably forgetting some, and it even started here.
I can’t go into details here, but let’s say that the SCP relies on concerted work, consistently involving all the players in the establishment, who focus on expected behaviors rather than those that should be punished. Its implementation is rigorously supervised. We have tested its effects, and the results are promising.
This, I think, is enough to inspire the minister to respond to the request made to him… I would add that other interventions based on evidence are possible, such as teaching social skills and socio-emotional skills.
Of course, this does not solve everything. The school as an institution must be protected from the outside world when it wants to enter, be undisciplined and not respect its values. For example, this parent who insults and even threatens the homosexual teacher.
This indiscipline, the SCP or other approaches will not solve it. It is up to society as a whole to do this task. By affirming its values and protecting the school against what threatens it. Let’s get to work!
Click here to learn more about the SCP.
Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Education and columnist, Normand Baillargeon has written, directed or translated and edited more than eighty works.