I was very pleased to learn that my daughter’s teacher has implemented a very interesting method to maintain the discipline in his class, which is much in line with the positive discipline principles that I have written about elsewhere on my weblog.
He has a colour system consisting of a green, yellow and red colour, like a traffic light. The system works in such a way that there are tags with each student’s name on it and simply put, the intention is to measure the ‘temperature’ of the students’ behaviour in the class. If a child is not behaving according to the expectation, makes too much noise, are too chatty, not concentrating on the work given, his or her name will move from green to yellow, which serves as a warning. If a child continues to ignore the warning, he or she may be moved to a different place in the class or something else but if it still doesn’t work, his or her name will be moved to the red zone, which results in a serious talk with the child and/or a letter sent back home to the parents. No yelling, name calling, scolding or otherwise to make the children behave or keep quiet, just a powerful quiet message, which the students themselves must keep an eye on and be responsible for.
And my daughter enthusiastically tells me that every morning, they get a new chance, as they start with the green colour, so thus far, she says that her class is very good and well behaved, which I like to hear, as it proves that there are alternative ways to deal with discipline in school, which are respectful of the children’s integrity and which encourages them to take responsibility for their own actions and learn to measure the temperature of their own behaviour as well as others and know when the limit has been reached.
This method works very well on my daughter, because she fully understands the consequences of not behaving as expected. For example if she chats too much in class, she can adjust herself accordingly, as she can see ‘the temperature’, without the fear of being scolded herself or feel the pain by having to observe other children get in trouble publicly, as it hurts her as well.
My daughter knows very well that we her parents expect her to behave in class and listen to the teachers and do as she is told, therefore she would not want to misbehave and ignore the warning and have to deal with the consequences of her teacher having a serious talk with her or a letter being sent home. Therefore for someone like my daughter this method is perfect and I would be very surprised if a letter would be sent home because of her misbehaviour, as I believe she is capable of adjusting herself to avoid the colour ever turning red.
And although she hasn’t mentioned about it, I think that if they were working in groups or in pairs and some of the children in the group ignored the warning colour, the other children would try to reprimand them, as the rest of the children have a self interest in adhering to the warning, as they wouldn’t want to be implicated, which is an effective and good way, because it fosters the commitment and responsibility of the group as a whole.
Just another example of how Tenby International School in Malaysia is adopting the latest methods of positive discipline in the school. I hope it serves as a motivation for other schools around Malaysia and the world to adopt similar methods for the sake of our children’s integrity and healthy development in future.
