Discipline in the Classroom: Colin Gleason on the Art of Order

As teachers and parents, it is often difficult to find the balance between leniency and strictness, love and fear. Getting the right tone, being firm in principle and flexible in preference, is indeed an art and an especially difficult one. While nothing can replace personal experience for growing in this art, self-reflection is a great aid to this end.

This week on HeightsCast, Mr. Colin Gleason, Head of the Lower School, offers an aid to our personal reflection. The episode features a presentation by Mr. Gleason from our recent Art of Teaching Conference. At that conference, he spoke to seventy men from across the United States and beyond about how we, as teachers, can foster an environment of respectful dominion in the classroom. Colin offers a list of twelve principles, together with a great many practical pointers and delightful anecdotes.

In the end, the point of discipline is to foster the right tone for learning, the proper culture for growth. Whether this growth occurs in the home or in the classroom, having the right tone is ultimately about love. Rome, they say, was not loved because she was great; she was great because she was first loved. So too our sons and students.

Chapters

• 2:25 Beginning with the end
• 3:50 A question of balance
• 6:35 Principle #1: Discipline begins before class begins
• 8:32 Principle #2: Best disciplinary tool is a good lesson plan
• 12:25 Principle #3: Fostering class culture is more effective than listing class rules
• 14:40 Principle #4: We earn capital outside to spend inside
• 17:05 Principle #5: Smiling isn't enough; we need to laugh
• 19:45 Principle #6: Let them love what they see and fear what they don't
• 24:45 Principle #7: Don't confuse personal preference with principles
• 25:40 Principle #8: Non-correction corrections
• 27:35 Principle #9: Replace star stickers with handshakes
• 29:15 Principle #10: Learners over lessons
• 31:25 Principle #11: Replace line-writing with push-ups
• 34:30 Principle #12: When you send students to the principal's office, your authority goes with them

Also on the Forum

Boys, Education, and The Heights with Alvaro de Vicente

Raising Contemplative Sons: The Problem with Boys with Colin Gleason

Our Little Protectors: How Do WE See Our Boys? with Alvaro de Vicente

On Recess: The Benefits of Free Play with Colin Gleason

Toughness for the Adolescent Boy by Kyle Blackmer

Seeing Our Boys with Loving Eyes: Not Projects, but Persons with Tom Royals

Why Boys Need to Be Given Freedom by Andy Reed

Material Order and the Middle School Boy with Kyle Blackmer

Can I Catch It?: On Handling Wildlife with Eric Heil

*For lyrics and history of the Ave Regina Caelorum, please visit adoremus.org.