External motivators are used extensively in schools. This includes telling young people what to do, punishing them if they do not, and rewarding them if they do. These approaches teach young people obedience. The shortcomings of obedience appear when teachers and parents are not around to use these external motivators. The Raise Responsibility System focuses on internal motivation, which builds the vision to act with responsible, autonomous behavior—whether or not anyone else is around. If America is to continue the civil democracy that has been our heritage, we must do more than just talk about civil democracy and responsibility; we must actively foster it. We can do this in a classroom by providing opportunities for students to take responsibility and
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Dear Dr. Marshall, I’d like to share with you how your Discipline without Stress system has worked for me. I started my career in education as a substitute teacher. I thought that being tough and enforcing rules was the way to control a class. However, in my first year of full-time teaching I noticed I was only getting about 20 minutes of actual instruction time in a 55-minute instructional period. The rest of the time was spent telling students what to do, how to behave, lecturing, and even threatening with punishments. By the end of the day I was exhausted! In my second year of teaching, I heard you speak at a conference, bought your book, and for the past eight (8)
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 12 Number 9
#3 Counterwill and discipline
#6 Five good parenting tips
#7 Discipline, honesty, and motivation
Tom Sawyer was a much better psychologist than any behaviorist. Why? Because he inspired others to whitewash Aunt Polly’s front fence. He prompted them to feel good about doing the chore, because he showed them how much fun they could be having. He triggered the internal motivation that prompted them to want to whitewash the fence. Behaviorists believe that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. They rely on external sources to actuate change. They completely neglect the internal, which is a prime reason that neuroscientists do not rely on these approaches for humans. Unfortunately, a carrot and stick approach—used to train rodents, birds, and animals—is employed in much of education and parenting. Although behaviorism is touted for special education students
READ MORE >>> →In my former role as a supervisor and administrator, and in my forever role as a parent, I always have aimed and always will aim at sharing, rather than telling. Why? Because telling has many negative effects. When you tell someone to do something, the inference is that what the person is doing is wrong or not good enough and that the person has to change. People often don’t mind changing as much as they dislike attempts to be changed or controlled by others. Remember this key point: A change in behavior is as much emotional as it is intellectual. Negative emotions do not bring about positive changes. Because people perceive telling as criticism, they often become defensive and have
READ MORE >>> →Both the media and the critics of the current Chicago teachers strike are paying little attention to the primary reason that the teachers are not in their classrooms: Recent legislation passed by the Illinois legislature requires that scores from standardized tests be used for teacher accountability and performance. To someone not in the education field, this mandate may seem reasonable. However, most people don’t realize that standardized tests were never designed to measure learning. Standardized tests were designed so that half of the test takers will fall below the 50 percent line. If 50 percent of students “fail” by design, how can these types of tests be justified for teacher accountability? Under this ruling, teachers will be judged and evaluated on a measure that
READ MORE >>> →No child wants to fail or intentionally get into trouble. Henry David Thoreau said, “Men are born to succeed, not fail.” Renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow agreed with this concept when he declared that it is a basic human need to strive toward success and self-actualization. People improve more by building on their strengths than by working on their weaknesses. This does not mean that a weakness should be ignored, but it does mean that the emphasis should be on what the child can do, rather than on what the child cannot do. The simple belief that something can be done is the spark that ignites action. When a child is first learning a skill, it is the successes—not the failures—that
READ MORE >>> →When it comes to parenting, it’s important to choose your battles. While clashes may be unavoidable, it is not necessary to get pulled into every skirmish or make a bid deal about everything the child does. An effective strategy here is to ponder the answer to the question, “Will this matter a week from now?” As a rule of thumb, only make a fuss about those issues that are harmful to the youngster or others, or are irreversible. For example, I know one four-year-old girl who likes to put Hello Kitty bandages on her arms and legs when she has no physical need for a bandage; rather, she wears them like jewelry. I know a thirteen-year-old boy who wears a
READ MORE >>> →Have you noticed that people are often meaner online than in real life? Many have blamed this on anonymity and invisibility, because when you are online no one knows who you are or what you look like. However, new research suggests that we may have a tendency to be nasty on the Internet because we do not make eye contact with those with whom we are communicating. For example, a recent study demonstrated this point by having their subjects look into their partner’s eyes and predict how mean they were. When their eyes were hidden, participants were twice as likely to be hostile. Even if the subjects were both unrecognizable (with only their eyes on the screen) and anonymous, they
READ MORE >>> →A joy of parenting is watching a child develop and mature. Possessiveness has been a hallmark of parenting for hundreds of generations. Today, parents can no longer consider children their possessions. Children have rights and are watched over by the general society. An indication of this is the fine line drawn between punishment and child abuse. Perhaps the paramount desire of parents has to do with simultaneously giving roots and wings. Parents model, foster values, and teach by what they say and do. They provide the shelter, clothing, affection, and security so necessary for a healthy environment. All of these provide roots. Parents also give wings and hope that the direction of flight will be toward responsible living. Perhaps the
READ MORE >>> →Imagine you are driving on a highway on a Saturday morning. The road is like a ribbon of concrete ready for you to unfurl—not the usual heavy traffic where you can see only the vehicle in front of you. Your eyes begin to meander. You appreciate the azure blue sky with an occasional cloud, the verdant landscaping along the road, and the beauty of the day. You glance in the rear view mirror and realize that someone is tailgating you so closely that you can almost feel the driver’s breath on your back. You look at your speedometer; you are going faster than the speed limit allows. You move over one lane to allow the car to pass. As the
READ MORE >>> →I recently read about Dean Cromwell, the track coach of the University of Southern California from 1912 until his retirement in 1949. No other coach in collegiate track has ever approached his records. His teams won 21 national championships, had 13 world record holders, and at least one of his protégés won an Olympic gold medal during his 39-year coaching career. Cromwell was a master at getting people to believe in themselves and getting phenomenal performances from his athletes. He believed in always keeping everyone in an optimistic mood. Yet, he didn’t give fiery pep talks. He always kidded on the “upside, never on the downside.” He never made fun of anyone—never a putdown, but always a buildup. This highly
READ MORE >>> →At a recent meeting of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Speakers Association, Scott McKain, a well-recognized professional speaker, related a very interesting experience to me. He said that he was asked to deliver a keynote speech at his former elementary school. After the presentation, he was surprised to see that his 3rd grade teacher was still teaching there, so he struck up a conversation with her. Scott inquired what his former teacher thought was the biggest problem in education today. Without hesitation, she replied, “Sesame Street.” Scott was taken back and inquired into her reasoning. She responded that children today are brought up on entertainment, and when they arrive at school they expect to be entertained. Regardless of
READ MORE >>> →Frank Knight (November 7, 1885 – April 15, 1972) was a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Four of his students received the Nobel Prize for Economics (Paul Saluelson, Milton Friedman, George Stigler, and James Buchanan, Jr.) . Professor Knight was rather outspoken. The short paragraphs below are his comments about behaviorism and its best known founders, John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner. John B. Watson was a founder of the psychological school referred to as behaviorism. Behaviorists, represented more popularly by the controversial utopian B.F. Skinner of Harvard University, argue that all human behavior can be understood in terms of stimulus-response models that have been developed from studying the behavior of rats in mazes. In 1932, Knight
READ MORE >>> →Case Study of a 4.5-Year-Old Boy with Severe Behavior Problems in Pre-School By Dianne Hall – Sydney, Australia This is a synopsis of the study. It does not contain references, graphs, or illustrations. The child’s problem was angry, aggressive, impulsive, and with non-compliant behaviour. He did not have the skills to control these impulsive reactions to transform himself into a child who could control his behavior and make choices that would enable him to have a successful transition into Kindergarten. He simply lacked socially acceptable skills. By teaching the four levels of the Hierarchy of Social Development children were taught to understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Level D, the highest level, triggers internal motivation and the feeling
READ MORE >>> →When I was offered a teaching position at Central Florida Aerospace Academy, it was shrouded with the understandable skepticism that surrounds most first year teachers. Could this “rookie” really handle a predominately male academy offering a notoriously male dominated curriculum? The answer was and is ABSOLUTELY YES! What my administrators did not know at the time was the finely tuned instrument I had tucked away in my “classroom bag of tools,” namely, Dr. Marvin Marshall’s Raise Responsibility System. Dr. Marshall’s plan allowed/allows me the freedom to focus my efforts toward truly differentiated instruction and creative teaching methods without having to stumble over the “first year teaching” potholes and pitfalls of classroom discipline. My first year of teaching was AWESOME and I
READ MORE >>> →This is the conclusion of our first year using your program. We all read the book last summer and had discussion sessions. We started off the year all on the same page. There was some concern that being so polite and respectful to our children would not work since they were not used to being dealt with respectfully. We are a school filled with students at risk, 99% African American and 96% receive free or reduced school lunch. We have been very impressed with the program. Every teacher has the chart on the wall and every teacher uses the same terms. Teachers now discuss issues with students, and office referrals are down over 50%. Suspensions have also been reduced by
READ MORE >>> →About a week before school started I went online looking for a way to provide a suitable reward system to make sure that my classes were positive and motivated. I knew that rewards were more effective than punishments, or so I thought. I did a search for “Discipline Rewards” and your site popped up. I started reading your website and I was immediately on-board. After spending about an hour on your site, I decided to try your system this year. I spent the second day of school talking to my classes about the hierarchy. Their homework was for them to go online and research the Raise Responsibility System. We discussed their viewpoints and the changes started immediately. I realized for
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