Ron Morrish on Organizing and Keeping a Basic Discipline Plan Riley Jones Hope Watkins Savanna Williams

Who is Ronald Morrish? Ron Morrish was a teacher and behavior specialist in Canada for many years. He now writes, makes conference presentations, conducts professional development programs and works with parent groups and child care providers around the world. He has written three books: Secrets of Discipline (1997), With All Due Respect (2000), and FlipTips (2003), a mini-book of discipline tips and maxims excerpted from his books and presentations. To see Morrish’s own description of his program, called “Real Discipline,” consult his 2005 article “What is Real Discipline?” posted on his website at www.realdiscipline.com

Main Ideas Ron Morrish says we have to teach students how to behave properly because many of them do not learn how to do so at home. Our ultimate goal is for students to develop self-control. Supportive adults are missing from many students’ lives today. We teachers are in an ideal position to offer that support. Morrish’s approach to discipline is straightforward, sensible, and easy to teach and learn. It consists of 4 main components. Rules of behavior Compliance training, in which students are taught how to comply with expectations. A few carefully chosen things you will do and say when students break rules. When students are old enough, a provision for allowing and helping them make choices in a responsible manner.

Main Ideas continued… Morrish says teachers should establish rules of behavior, not students. He believes it is a major mistake for teachers to involve students in making rules before students have the maturity and wisdom to do so. After rules are established, students must be taught how and why they are to comply with the rules (compliance training). Although rules and compliance training will prevent most problems, Morrish acknowledges that students will still misbehave at times. When that happens, you must be able to redirect student misbehavior in positive directions, in a manner that leaves no residue of resentment. After compliance has been established, you should teach students how to manage choice. This will enable them to develop genuine self discipline.

How and Why Has Modern Discipline Gone Wrong? Morrish gives some blame to society’s “me-first” attitudes and disinclination to accept responsibility. But he assigns more blame to “bad advice” that teachers get in today’s popular systems of discipline. He says that authorities too often urge teachers to involve students in decision making before students are mature enough to do so responsibly. Teachers waste too much time trying to negotiate with students about behavior. That approach does not demand proper behavior from students, does not teach students how to behave in school, and leaves teachers stuck with bargaining with students to get students to cooperate.

Real Discipline Morrish advocates a different approach called Real Discipline. Emphasizes careful teacher guidance to ensure that children learn how to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner. Morrish feels that teachers need both behavior management and discipline, but says that they are not the same thing. Behavior management is about creating a functional learning environment but is not very effective in helping students learn to behave responsibly. Real Discipline teaches students how to behave properly by showing courtesy and consideration and helps them develop social skills and trains them to work within a structure of rules and limits while protecting students from self-defeating mistakes.

Morrish’s approach has 3 progressive phases to guide students through. Morrish argues that many children today are over-indulged and rarely have to account for their behavior. This is because society stresses individual rights and freedom but has lost sight of personal responsibility that accompanies rights and freedom. Believes that students should be allowed to make choices and helped to make good ones, but only when they are mature enough to do so responsibly. Students must first learn to develop respect for and compliance with authority. Morrish’s approach has 3 progressive phases to guide students through.

Phase 1: Training for Compliance Morrish strongly urges teachers to train students to comply with rules, limits, and authority. Rules: descriptions of how students are to behave. Example: Show courtesy and respect at all times. Limits: specify behavior that will not be allowed. Example: No name-calling in this room. Compliance should be taught as a nonthinking activity (a habit you don’t have to reflect on, such as stopping at a redlight.) Explain to students that in order to find success, they must learn to behave courteously, show self-control, and do what is expected of them to the best of their ability. Practice rules with students until they occur automatically without having to think about them.

Address all instances of misbehavior Address all instances of misbehavior. Do not overlook small misbehaviors. Poor habits easily expand into poor behavior. Morrish says insistence is the best strategy for enforcing rules. Develop the mindset that that once you give instructions, there is no question about students doing what you say. Teachers do not negotiate limits with students. Morrish says the first secret of good discipline is: Never give students a choice when it comes to limits. If students have a question about limits, you should make time to explain the reasons behind them, but students should not be allowed to ignore the limits. Teachers should clearly communicate what they expect of students and accept nothing less. Make clear that no negotiation is involved.

Phase 2: Teaching Students How to Behave You will have already established class rules and limits through practice and repetition. This phase involves teaching students skills and attitudes for behaving properly. Begin teaching them how to be courteous, work together harmoniously, resolve conflicts, set personal goals, organize tasks, and manage time. If you are to have order and acceptable behavior in your classroom, you have to prepare your students. When students fail to comply with expectations, don’t scold or punish them, but instead have them redo the behavior in an acceptable manner. Do this as often as necessary.

Phase 3: Managing Student Choice Helps students move toward greater independence by allowing them the opportunity to make more choices as they show they can handle them intelligently. You should never allow a student to choose to do poor work if he/she wants to. We should expect students to do quality work and accept nothing less. As students become older and move toward independence, Real Discipline will have taught them 3 things about making independent choices. Independence requires balancing personal rights with personal responsibilities. The rights and needs of others should always be taken into account. Students should look at every unsupervised situation as an opportunity to demonstrate personal responsibility.

11 Steps to Planning and Implementing a Good Discipline Program Decide in advance how you want your students to behave. Design a supporting structure. Establish a threshold for behavior at school. Run a 2-week training camp. Teach students how to behave appropriately. Set the stage for quality instruction. Provide active, assertive supervision. Enforce rules and expectations. Focus on prevention. Set high standards. Treat caregivers as partners.

Developing Positive Relations with Students Consistently focus on the positive. Look for things students do right. Wipe the slate clean after students make behavior mistakes. Deal with the mistake and move on. Don’t hold grudges. Don’t back away from discipline. Lead the way. Model good behavior and attitudes. Never humiliate students when correcting their misbehavior. Don’t accept mediocrity.

Consequences for Misbehavior Make an improvement plan. Have the student make a plan for handling the situation better in the future. Make sure the student follow through. Provide compensation. Have the student do something positive to make up for negative behavior, such as making the classroom look better. Write a letter. Have the offending student write a letter to the person who was offended. Teach younger children. Have the student tell the story to younger children, emphasizing what was done wrong and what was learned from the experience.

Motivation, Rewards, and Fostering Self-Esteem Morrish advises teachers to forego praise and reward when students do what is expected of them. Occasional rewards are fine because they give special recognition when needed, but overall, rewards are vastly overused. Students develop healthier attitudes if teachers praise student work and behavior only when they truly merit recognition. Morrish says success in school determines self-esteem. Genuine self-esteem comes from increased competence in academic and social and the ability to overcome obstacles. If we teach students academic and social skills, students will come to think well of themselves. Competence comes first, then self-esteem follows.

What if Students Fail to Comply with Your Directions? Instead of time-out or some other consequence, you should insist on a do-over. Teachers should not use if-then statements, such as, “If you speak to me in that manner again, then you will be going to the principal’s office.” Teachers should give students no choice in the matter by saying, “We don’t speak that way in this class. Start over.” The most important and powerful rule is insistence. If a student still refuses to do what you say, repeat the instruction in a serious tone of voice and if that doesn’t work, then you can use a mild punishment such as a time-out to get the message across. After a short time, bring the student back to do the task directly.

The Nature of Real Discipline Discipline is a process, not an event. Discipline is about giving students the structue they need for proper behavior. Discipline isn’t what you do when students misbehvae, it’s what you do so they won’t. If you teach students to be part of the solution, they’re less likely to be part of the problem. When dealing with adolescents, be more like a coach and less like a boss. Discipline is about preparing them properly for the choices they will be making later. Students learn far more from being shown how to behave appropriately than from being punished. Today’s practice is tomorrow’s performance.