Volume 5 Number 10
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Welcome
2. Promoting Responsibility
3. Increasing Effectiveness
4. Improving Relationships
5. Promoting Learning
6. Implementing The Raise Responsibility System:
How Your School Can Implement the System
Your Questions Answered
Free Mailring/User Group
Impulse Management Posters and Cards
A Comment about the RAISE RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM
1. WELCOME
Last month was a traveling month for my wife and me. We
landed in Australia on the first of September and returned
home at the end of the month. The one and two-day
presentations took us to the Gold Coast, Sydney, Newcastle,
and Adelaide. It was a magnificent month thanks to Judy
Hatswell, a senior faculty Member of the William Glasser
Institute of Australia who sponsored and arranged the
seminars.
While being hosted by Judy and her husband, Gerry, a retired
school principal, I was admiring their various collections
when I read a postcard sent to Judy by one of her clients. I
share it with you:
Happiness is not a state to arrive at
but a manner of traveling.
The William Glasser approach of noncoercion and taking
responsibility for one’s actions is growing in popularity
across the country/continent. Partial credit toward a
masters degree is being planned at the Gold Coast campus of
Griffith University for those who have had William Glasser
training.
If you look at the north western part of Australia, you can
see how it was at one time connected to Indonesia and how
Tasmania was part of Australia millions of years ago. Most
of the continent receives less than 10 inches of rain each
year. Eighty percent of the 20 million human residents
reside around the southeast coastline.
The population around Sydney, which has one of the most
spectacular harbors in the world, is four million –not
counting the kangaroos, wallabies, pandas, wombats, ibises,
and emus.
The following few items may be of interest to educators.
The following is from the Australian Government’s National
Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools:
— Education is as much about building character as it is
about equipping students with specific skills.
— Values based education can strengthen students self-
esteem, optimism and commitment to personal fulfillment;
and help students exercise ethical judgement (sic) and
social responsibility.
The first issue listed in Australian Government’s National
Safe Schools Framework is bullying. Harassment, violence,
and child protection are then listed in that order. The
Raise Responsibility System directly addresses the first
three issues.
2. PROMOTING RESPONSIBILITY
The following is from a personal communication from Nancy
Snow, District Guidance Officer, Newcastle, New South Wales,
Australia:
“Choice is the basic ingredient for the promotion of
prosocial values. If we want kids to be caring,
kind, and
generous, we have to have them become aware of
choices.
You cannot mandate responsibility, persistence,
consideration, honesty, or integrity. These
values are
chosen; therefore, the concept of choice is
essential to
the teaching and learning of values.”
MM’s comment: Young people will choose these values if (1)
the positivity of their benefits are explored, (2) they are
prompted to reflect on their choices, and (3) coercion is
not used.
3. INCREASING EFFECTIVENESS
The most effective approach to influence others is to
consider what they want.
For example, one day Ralph Waldo Emerson and his son tried
to get a calf into a barn. Unfortunately, they made the
common mistake of thinking of only what they wanted. Emerson
pushed and his son pulled, but the calf was doing just what
they were doing. It was thinking only of what it wanted, so
it stiffened its legs and stubbornly refused to leave the
pasture. The housemaid saw their predicament. Although she
couldn’t write essays and books, on this occasion she had
more horse sense, or calf sense, than Emerson had.
She thought of what the calf wanted, so she put her maternal
finger in the calf’s mouth and let the calf suck her finger
as she gently led him into the barn.
You do things because of what you want–whether it be
referred to as a need, a desire, or a craving. This even
applies to giving a contribution. If you hadn’t wanted the
feeling of helping more than your money, you would not have
made the contribution. (Of course, you might have made the
contribution because you were ashamed to refuse or someone
asked you to do it.) But one thing is certain. You made the
decision because you wanted something.
4. IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS
Assume everything you say about another person can be
overheard by that person.
5. PROMOTING LEARNING
The young boy was to start kindergarten the next day and was
protesting that he would not go.
A normal reaction would have been to banish the youngster to
his room and tell him that he had better make up his mind to
go because he had no choice. (Note: the youngster may have
had no choice as to the decision but certainly had a choice
as to how he could react to it.)
Rather than taking this approach, the father reflected, “If
I were my son, why would I be excited to go to
kindergarten?”
The father and his wife made a list of all the fun things
the child would do–such as finger painting, singing songs,
and making new friends. Then they decided to do some
finger-painting themselves. The youngster saw the fun his
parents were having and wanted to join in. “Oh, no! You have
to go to kindergarten first to learn how to finger-paint,”
remarked the mother.
Then the parents shared with their son the other fun
activities they had listed.
The next morning as the father passed the living room to go
into the kitchen, he saw his son asleep on the sofa. “What
are you doing here?” he asked.
The son responded, “I’m waiting to go to kindergarten, and I
don’t want to be late.”
Asking, “How can I influence the person to WANT to do what I
would like the person to do?” is a hallmark of successful
parents, teachers, and leaders.
6. Implementing the RAISE RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM
How a school can conduct its own in-house staff development is described at
http://marvinmarshall.com/In_House_Package.html.
Details for implementation are described on the next link at
http://marvinmarshall.com/in-housedetails.html.
This link describes THE MARVIN MARSHALL TEACHING MODEL.
Topics include differences between classroom management and
discipline, three principles to practice, the three parts of
the RRSystem, and how the RRSystem can be used to raise
academic achievement.
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The following is from a recent communication to me:
I added “Bugging” and “Breaks classroom procedures”
to Level B. I also added “A piling on” to Level A because I
use a football analogy. Some students choose to tease other
students. This is hurtful behavior.
I explain to my students that in order to learn, they must:
1) Follow classroom procedures and 2) Meet behavior
standards.
I use the levels to teach the importance of establishing a
procedure each morning to get to school on time. I give an
alarm clock analogy:
Level D – You set your alarm clock, wake up, and
get to
school on time.
Level C – You depend on your parents to wake you
up and
get to school on time.
Level A/B – You hurt yourself by ignoring your
alarm
clock and come to school late.
Your approach really clarifies the concepts of internal and
external motivation. It applies to adults, too. It goes way
beyond the classroom. I tell my high school students that to
succeed in college, they must have motivation on Level D.
Their motivation must come from within.
Thanks again,
Jim Mann
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You can post questions and learn more about the system at
the free user group (mailring support) at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RaiseResponsibilitySystem .
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IMPULSE MANAGEMENT POSTERS and CARDS
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Learning a procedure for responding appropriately to
impulses is described on the Impulse Management link at
http://marvinmarshall.com/impulsemanagement.html .
A Comment about THE RAISE RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM
“I am teaching a graduate course in social studies. I have
experienced teachers and they are loving your book –
absolutely loving it. Of course, with grad students the
perspective is different. They know a truly good thing when
they see it when it comes to practical ideas in the
classroom. You can’t fool them.”
Dr. Suzie McBride
California State Polytechnic University
San Luis Obispo, California
