The Launching Pad

Volume 3, No. 1                       Winter/Spring, 2009                       Exclusively online at www.EducationHall.com

 

Book Review

If you're like most of the administrators working in today's schools, you've got a lot on your plate: accountability, testing, professional development, budgets, materials, parent involvement, and, lest we forget: student discipline. Enter the timely and helpful text, Discipline with Dignity: New Challenges, New Solutions.

In this updated 3rd edition, authors Richard L. Curwin, Allen N. Mendler, and Brian D. Mendler continue their investigation into the strategies and nuances of effective classroom management. In their introduction, they provide a solid foundation for the work ahead, as well as offering a succinct definition to the query, "What is Discipline with Dignity, anyway?"

• It is not only a program.
• It is not just a solution.
• It has a structure that can apply to all situations, but it is not a standardized formula.
• It does not change children to be somebody else. It makes them better at who they already are. (pg. 1-2)

Staying true to the EducationHall philosophy of Strength-Based School Improvement, Discipline with Dignity stresses that educators need to identify and develop the natural strengths of their students. According to the authors, effective classroom management comes not from teachers being in charge and devising myriad rules that students must follow faithfully, but rather from a slew of other factors under the teacher's control, such as the following:

• Building strong relationships between teacher and students.
• Utilizing a relevant, meaningful curriculum and intentional lesson planning.
• Emphasizing proactive strategies that will prevent problems.
• Developing responsibility and classroom community.
• Handling discipline in a fair, respectful manner.

The authors cover a variety of key topics in this, the 10-year anniversary of the initial release. Intended as a guide for teachers as they create the structure, relationships, and climate for success in their classrooms, its secondary purpose is clear and identifiable: Administrators can use the book as a professional development tool. As a book study, a philosophical platform, a strategy buffet, or a team-building exercise, Discipline with Dignity proves to be a valuable resource for schools at any level (elementary, middle, or high school).

If you are facing some of the tough discipline and management issues that administrators nationwide are encountering, this might be the book for you. School-wide misbehaviors, classroom management, and individual discipline are most effectively handled if the adults and students in the equation have a strong and healthy relationship. Discipline with Dignity (published by ASCD, 2008) provides a solid structure for teachers to begin the work, for administrators to begin the conversations, and for students and schools to reap the benefits.

You can find Discipline with Dignity: New Challenges, New Solutions (3rd edition), and dozens of other school leadership and instructional titles, at the secure online bookstore: http://www.EducationHall.com/resources.htm.