With all the talk of classroom management, we seem to have made (or are making) a statement which reflects arrogant self-aggrandizement. The statement goes something like this: if students were more disciplined and civil, I could instruct my class so that more students could learn what I have to teach them. This idea is, by and large, hogwash. By putting the onus of a disciplined and respectful classroom primarily on the backs of the students, we deemphasize the need for quality, engaging instruction.

Having completed a second year of observing teacher instructional practice using the Charlotte Danielson-based REACH Students frameworks, a glaring, but intuitive, phenomenon has emerged. Teachers with student-centered, standards-based lessons invariably have high marks for student engagement. When teachers with high marks for student engagement (REACH 3c) are compared with their student discipline (REACH 2d) rating, the ratings are similar. Likewise, teachers with low marks for student engagement have low marks for student discipline. Middle or so-so marks for engagement seem to have little bearing on discipline. It could be good; it could be bad.

Altogether too many educators want to blame students for disruptive, impolite and disrespectful behavior. An entire sub-culture within education has developed an industry focused solely on how to create a positive learning environment – from the student discipline perspective. I’ve been to some of these professional development seminars. They’re based primarily on creating and reinforcing positive structures and public affirmation of good behavior. In reality it attempts to promote behavior that is merely not “bad.” They try to help teachers envision a classroom focused on civil obedience. “If we can get the children to sit still, behave themselves and pay attention, we can teach them something of importance which they may come to appreciate one day.”

It has become increasingly difficult for me to accept the absurdity of such a notion. These educators have conveniently left out the most important elements of quality instruction and put the kids at fault. Never mind that there are, in fact, ill-tempered children in our fold. But ask yourself a couple simple questions. Why are some kids great students with some teachers and thugs with others? Why are some teachers burning up the Dean of Students’ phone with student misconduct while other teachers barely know his name? Again, accounting for the occasional, continuously ill-tempered child, with some teachers the students respect the environment and come to class to learn. With some teachers the students arrive to class prepared for conflict. And these students are rarely disappointed.

The solution to classroom conflict appears less and less to do with behavior protocols, expectations and interventions, although these structures are absolutely necessary ingredients. The solution appears to be well-planned, student-centered lessons which optimize student learning. Planning and ultimately executing rigorous and relevant standards-based learning activities trump a hundred structured protocols, expectations and interventions. Students know when they’re being pandered to. Neither the well-behaved, academic minded students nor the socially inept, unmotivated students appreciate poorly designed, irrelevant instructional drivel.

What do I see in classrooms with poor student behavior? I see independent reading packets wherein students are asked to complete the pre-fab questions at the end. I see teachers presenting lectures wherein students are told to take good notes (a la Cornell notes, etc.?). I see teachers reviewing outlines of key information, often requiring students to put them in their notebooks to study for the test. I see students being made to copy key vocabulary, write the definition, and use the term in a sentence. I see writing assignments whose only criteria for grading is quantity of words, sentences or paragraphs “covering” (mentioning in whatever application) a list of nouns. I see the mindless dumping of unit content with no real purpose for the children – content whose only relevance to the students is that it will be on the test, whatever that might entail.

All of the above examples are fairly easy for a teacher to pull together. At the same time, however, this is all pretty boring for the students. The students need useful instruction. The mindlessness of too many classes is evident in the amount of student misconduct, suspensions and ultimate dropouts. Surveys of students who’ve dropped out of school more often than not identify sheer boredom as a major cause of leaving school. While they are undergoing the social and emotional upheaval of adolescence, we are boring them to death. It’s no wonder they can’t sit still.

On the other hand, I’ve seen otherwise problem children totally engrossed in math talk. Why? Because they’re challenged at a level they can access and understand, yet they have to think about what they’re doing and saying. I’ve seen the all-to-often restlessly disengaged upperclassmen seriously attuned to discussions of, well, discourse. Why? Because they can relate to a topic of meaningful social policy that requires evidence of their position, yet that which they present must have meaning beyond a personal opinion or a teacher’s interpretation. When students learn new skills or advance current skills to new levels, they are like putty in the hands of a skillful teacher.

But these types of lessons require planning. They are not easy – at any level. They require the teacher to know his/her students, to know their individual capacities for learning particular skills, to know student academic performance data. They must design lessons that take advantage of cognitive proximal development theory in a way that students can access conceptual understanding and apply it to new processes of content manipulation. Teachers must shed the cloak of intellectual superiority and challenge students to demonstrate skills in which they, the teachers, are challenged themselves.

When teachers are not afraid of being outed by a student, students will rise to the occasion. It’s a glorious thing. In such situations behavior issues of any sort are, for the most part, non-existent.