The current malaise that is sweeping the democratic societies is the question of truth, if we want future generations to understand truth or more precisely lying, schools must be part of the student’s education. In 2008 the governments of Australia combined to determine the goals for children’s education; the result is known as the Melbourne Declaration. This has become a foundational reference for all decisions regarding what subjects should be taught that directly affect children’s learning. This Declaration includes Goal 2 which affirms that ‘all young Australians become active and informed citizens’ and to achieve this, schools need to teach them how to ‘act with moral integrity’ and be ‘committed to national values of democracy, equity and justice, and participate in Australia’s civic life’. This statement articulates that our current form of government is a democracy and that democracy depends on moral integrity.
Teachers who undertake the task of delivering these declared goals would find it hard to unearth any political scholar who would pretend that any existing democracy could provide real evidence that they model ‘moral integrity’. Our Australian Government has become a consummate example of how truth and politics are almost mutually exclusive. In our current political conversations, lies have come to dominant in all forms of political management.
In the USA, the country that continues to assert their leadership of exemplary democracy their ex-president has according to the Washington Post been detailed as telling 30,537 lies during his time in office. Of these the biggest lie was that their last election was rigged and this has been continued without any evidence to support such a claim. Closer to Home our own PM, Scott Morrison is described as a liar at an ever-increasing rate. The news outlet Crickey has documented 16 lies and falsehoods.
The art of lying for political purpose is the skill professional ‘spinners’ bring to both major parties. Both Labor and Liberal employ spin doctors who are generally graduands of the advertisement industry. Their expertise is to modify the existing state of affairs in such a way as to appeal to the majority of the electorate. This can be done by shining the most positive light on the government’s planned agenda, if this doesn’t work the message can then be bent, introducing terms like alternate facts and to support this they let slip information that encourages conspiracy theories and finally they just tell lies. These steps have become the accepted form of political manipulation.
The other technique is to refer to highly trained experts who monopolise the business of presenting the ‘truth’. According to the latest Wikipedia entry there are 45 active Think Tanks that are funded to promote particular versions of the truth. They serve particular vested interests and in 2019, the last available data there were 11,894 registered lobbyists who have close access to all politicians all of whom represent either one of the think tanks or a particular enterprise.
The result of this manipulation of the truth means we are at the stage where what is the truth is at least confusing. We are at the stage where the general population almost expects politics to be corrupt and their politicians to be liars and of current evidence our leaders are living down to those expectations.
The question for teachers is how do we teach our students to understand the current conditions in our political landscape and for them to ‘to act with moral integrity’? If, we are implying that a healthy democracy depends on moral integrity, we need to teach our students about lying and truth and this is not a simple task.
I have addressed the issue of student’s lying at school in an essay found in my book ‘Insights into the Modern Classroom’, Chapter 12 – ‘Children of the Lie’ which I will post in the resources page of Frew Consultants Group. However this essay deals more with how we teach our students to be truthful rather than how to expose lies others tell. To achieve this first we must examine what lying involves.
Lying as an art of deception, is not unique to humans. It is a practice that is used throughout the natural world and has evolved because it gives an advantage to an individual. The basic premise of evolution is that an unusual characteristic of a particular plant or animal, which made it either more equipped to survive or more attractive for breeding, ensured that this characteristic was passed down from generation to generation. For example, some plants have learned to deceive particular insects by giving off the odour of the female insect’s pheromones. The scent attracts the males who are trying to identify potential mates. Through this deception, this lie, the plant gets to distribute its pollen on the desperate male, who will deliver it on to the next receptive plant. The lie the plant tells ensures the species survives.
For us humans, when it comes to attracting a partner, deception is the name of the game. Much of human activity, particularly during the breeding age, is dedicated to making us attractive partners. Look at the world of fashion, make-up, plastic surgery, membership at the gym, etc. Is this not evidence of our willingness to deceive to attract a mate?
In his article ‘Natural Born Liars,’ published in Scientific American Mind, David Livingstone Smith cites research that has shown that, as in nature, the best liars have a competitive edge in the mating game. It is evident that there is a high and significant correlation between social popularity and the ability to deceive. The most popular adolescents are those who lie best.
In fact, statistics taken in the United States show the following:
98% of students believe ‘honesty is the best policy’ lie.
One in every four students believes it is OK to lie.
84% believe you need to lie to get ahead.
80% in a high-achieving school believed it was OK to cheat on exams.
These are US statistics. Arguably, there would be a similar finding in Australia. Perhaps a test of our own honesty would be how we respond to the same enquiry.
Scott Peck, the American psychiatrist and philosopher, describes three types of lies. These are white lies, black lies, and evil lies.
White lies are those we tell to protect or avoid embarrassment for others. ‘Do these slacks make my bottom look big?’ asks the wife. To tell the truth may be a dangerous tactic, so the husband replies, ‘Of course not,’ (thinking, why do you always blame the slacks?). So we accept the white lie; we don’t want to crush someone’s esteem with the truth.
Black lies are those you tell to avoid the consequences of your actions. It is the use of these black lies that is the major concern for schools. Children have learned to use the famous Bart Simpson defence: ‘You didn’t see me, and you can’t prove it. I didn’t do it!’ Even adults use a version of this. When people are pulled up by the police, the common wisdom, cultivated from legal advice, is to deny and keep denying until either the police give up or start to doubt their own perception.
The use of these black lies is more likely to be developed in families and schools where punishments are too harsh. At lots of meetings I have heard parents boast about how hard they are on their kids to make sure that they don’t lie. What they don’t understand is that for the children of these unforgiving parents the truth is a poor option. Rather than developing honesty, they force the child to tell a lie. This is where one of our slogans is applicable – ‘100% rejection of inappropriate behaviour and 100% acceptance of the child’.
Finally Peck describes the evil lie. According to him, such a lie may be truly believed by the person who tells it. That is, he or she considers this account of a situation to be accurate, to be the truth, despite evidence to the contrary. This is the most difficult to deal with and when confronted with these liars it is important you have all the facts because you won’t be able to convince the child but you will have to justify your actions to your supervisor and perhaps the student’s parents. Truth is an account of perception, and so for these people, the evil lie is the truth.
So how do you teach kids to be honest? There are four steps:
Expect honesty from them all the time. Spell it out. ‘At this school we respect and expect honesty. This is the way we are.’
Make it easy for the child to tell the truth. Acknowledge that they, like all of us, make mistakes. They have made a mistake— they are not a mistake.
When they tell the truth, celebrate the fact that they have shown their true character and it is good. Give them plenty of credit.
Model the truth. This is the key to developing the truth in your kids. It’s hard to do, but then again, most worthwhile things are hard.
Time is running out for the children who live in an age when lying is modelled throughout our political system. Through self-deception, the lies we as a nation and a world have told and have been told, coupled with the inability of our leaders to be honest, has provided a toxic legacy for these students to deal with.
In previous Newsletters (see Newsletter 157 - Tips for Teaching Teenagers - 04/19 2021 and Newsletter 158 - The Teens - a Time for Specific Change - 04/26/2021) we discussed the changes to the structure of the brain and many of the implications that followed. This essay we recap some of this information but will focus on the social adjustments and their impact on behaviours especially those from an abusive or neglectful environment.
In 2007 Deborah Yurgelun-Todd published a paper, ‘Emotional and cognitive changes during adolescence’. The paper demonstrated the changes in the brain that occur about age 11; this is also the time for the onset of puberty. Although they occur together and have an impact on the child they are not the same thing.
As far as the brain changes, adolescence marks the final development of the brain. It is at this time the prefrontal lobes mature and the child has full access to the cognitive process referred to as working memory. Up until this time children are learning how they fit into the world and how to communicate with their immediate environment. They are creating their sense of self through the acquisition of memories, referred to as auto-biological. These are located across the cortex in hubs of specific modes of patterns of thoughts or behaviours. These are referred to as schemas (memories) and allow us to understand the world through a network of abstract neural structures.
There are thought to be 180 such hubs across the brain and they all fall into one of the following genres:
Self – this is the knowledge of our lives, what we think about ourselves and our position in our external environment. Things like, I’m a good runner, I’m shy, I don’t have many friends, etc.
Personal – this is what we think of other individuals. This includes things like my mother is kind, Charlie my friend is a good singer, things that you have categorised about other individuals.
Social – this moves out from the personal and includes collective memories. The supporters of a rival football team are rude, scientists are nerds, golf is only for old men. This type of schema leads to prejudice within and across communities.
Events – these are patterns of behaviour, that is if we observe X than we expect Y to follow. When I change gears, I use the clutch to disengage the motor then shift the gear stick and reengage the clutch and I should accelerate.
Until the prefrontal lobes are fully developed the information that resides in these schemas is fairly discrete, that is they almost stand alone. This explains the response you will get if you ask a child to tell you about themselves. They find it hard to give you much of a story. However, with the development of the prefrontal lobes these hubs are connected through what is a series of connections, called connectomes and these memories are shared. it is at this stage of their development that they really start to think for themselves. If you ask a teenager to tell you about themselves the response is different and, in some cases you will be sorry you asked!
This is the time when the child begins their transition to full independence but this is still a period of development. The prefrontal lobe has the following tasks which are the definition of working memory:
• Controls how we are interacting with our environment
• Manages how we make judgments about what occurs in our daily activities
• Directs our emotional response
• Organises our expressive language. Assigns meaning to the words we choose
• Involves word associations
• Controls memory for habits and motor activities
If the first stage of a child’s development is to become a functioning human than the next stage is to become a productive, reproductive person. Concurrent to the change in the brain’s structure is the transformation of the child’s body that marks the onset of puberty. This is when the child’s body matures to allow for reproduction. This is an awkward time for adolescent kids as they begin to experience powerful, new drives and emotional feelings driven by changes in the levels of hormone. There are two types of these hormones that can be generalised by adrenaline and cortisol to support actions that are designed to protect themselves and dopamine and serotonin that energises the drive to seek out what they want from their environment.
As mentioned before, this is the time for the child to assert their independence but this is not so much finding autonomy but a change from depending on their family of origin to creating their own ‘family’. This journey ‘ends’ with the adoption of a life partner but begins with the need to belong to a group they call their own!
This is a difficult time for all teenagers. As there is a behavioural price to belong to a group and the ability to ‘pay’ that cost depends on the social skills they acquired as children. Most kids have been taught how to behave in a way that allows them to be accepted as themselves without really changing their basic sense of their self. They form new friendships usually based on mutual interests such as sport, dancing, surfing or for some ‘nerds’ school work (teachers love the nerds).
However, incorporating the theme of our work too many come to this phase of their life without those functional skills that allow the relatively smooth transition. For these kids the mutual skills will compel these kids to join up with others who share the same problems. This is so easy to see in the beginning of any secondary school year, those kids who need the most support are drawn together and the synergy of this alliance only makes things harder for teachers to deal with these students.
This formation of new friendships coincides with the emergence of the working memory and the drive to belong may drive kids to make decisions that are not properly evaluated. This explains the impulsivity that is a hallmark of this period of their lives. For damaged kids this is a particularly risky time. To belong to their particular cohort, they will find the pressures to engage in dangerous physical and social activities in an effort to prove their worth to the group irresistible. One of the common dangers is the experimentation with drugs and sexual activities that may have life-long consequences.
All teenagers are tempted to experiment with illicit drugs and according to the Australian Secondary Students Alcohol and Drug survey of 2017, 17% of children between the age of 12 years and 17 years had tried cannabis. In other surveys from the United States 39.5% of high school students reported to be sexually active. These are dangerous times for all teenagers but for those with a damaged sense of self it is a critical time in their life.
Schools and teachers are not trained nor equipped to address these problems despite the continual call by politicians and society in general for schools to deal with them. However, we will have these kids in our schools and understanding that all teens are striving for independence it is prudent that we provide them with the opportunities to self-direct some of their learning as they mature. We actually do this quite well with most Year 12 students having a deal of independence and teachers move from directing the learning to facilitating it.
The second thing is to teach the students about their emerging sexuality and this we also do well however, the attack on the Safe Schools Program in recent years was a retrograde step.
The real challenge is to provide an alternate way for our damaged kids to safely belong with an appropriate set of friends and this is what all our work is about. As always, if we present a predictable, structured environment where expectations are well known and valued and all students are respected, healthy relationships will develop and we can all get through these difficult years.
Every teacher has experienced that student who just refuses to follow your instructions. They are defiant, disobedient and, if challenged will escalate the conflict even in the face of extreme consequences. These kids attract the diagnosis of Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association, lists criteria for diagnosing ODD. These include emotional and behavioural symptoms that last at least six months. Of course, this is not for a teacher to diagnose but it’s helpful to know the obvious symptoms.
Angry and irritable mood:
Often and easily loses temper
Is frequently touchy and easily annoyed by others
Is often angry and resentful
Argumentative and defiant behaviour:
Often argues with adults or people in authority
Often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults' requests or rules
Often deliberately annoys or upsets people
Often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehaviour
Vindictiveness:
Is often spiteful or vindictive
Has shown spiteful or vindictive behaviour at least twice in the past six months
The severity of the effect of this disability is variable ranging from:
Mild - Symptoms occur only in one setting, such as only at home, school, work or with peers.
Moderate - Some symptoms occur in at least two settings.
Severe - Some symptoms occur in three or more settings.
For some children, symptoms may first be seen only at home, but in time extend to other settings, such as school and with friends. However, by the age of eight years the disorder is well established being more common in boys than girls. Girls do become more defiant coinciding with the onset of puberty. Another factor that may influence the apparent difference between the genders is that boys act out their resentment and are generally more aggressive while girls will internalise and appear to be more compliant.
The causes of ODD are predictable and as with most developmental disorders they come from a chaotic or dysfunctional childhood. Typically their home-life is hectic and unpredictable resulting in at least an insecure attachment to their parents. These behaviours may have started as a way of getting attention and this was reinforced by the parent; defiance worked!
It’s hard to say exactly why children develop ODD. It’s probably not because of any one thing. But there are some risk factors that have been identified that are linked to the development of ODD. These are:
temperament – some children are born with an easy-going nature and conform to rules however, ODD kids resist from the start of their development
low academic performance at school – for example, if children have learning difficulties they will resist new lessons
poor social skills, poor problem-solving skills and memory problems
parenting and family factors – for example, inconsistent and harsh discipline, and a lot of family stress
school environmental factors – for example, schools with severe punishment or unclear rules, expectations and consequences
community factors – for example, negative influences from peers, neighbourhood violence and a lack of positive things to do with free time.
Children with ODD often have comorbid difficulties most prevalent being attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with 65% of ADHD attracting the ODD diagnosis. There is some suspicion that the defiance is a result of the child’s ADHD leading to them missing instruction and appearing to be defiant. Other combined disabilities include learning disabilities, autism, anxiety and mood disorders or language impairment.
Never underestimate the power of this disability; when faced with a direct conflict between following the teacher’s instruction or maintaining their defiance the latter will prevail because following the teacher’s instruction would represent a loss of their sense of having power over their ‘self’. In most cases this can be avoided by giving the child a choice in the way they perceive the consequences you present. Say they are refusing to start to write in a lesson, you might say ‘do you want to do that with your blue or black pen – it’s your choice’. The tag, ‘it’s your choice’ is the critical feature of the dialogue you have with ODD students. Giving them that choice allows them to preserve a sense that they are in control.
I remember one particular child, call him Mark, in a special setting who was directed to get on a train at the end of the school day, just to go home and avoid causing trouble on the station. He was told that if he didn’t get on he would be expelled. You have to understand Mark was an extremely dysfunctional student who had passed the school leaving age and had received multiple long-term suspensions. At our school the students were taught about behaviour and they all knew about ODD. I said to Mark ‘what if I had told you not to get on the train’ what would you have done. He knew he would have got on the train but even knowing this he still refused and was expelled. I have often thought about my behaviour in this situation and if I knew then the lessons in this Newsletter I hope I would have acted differently.
As you can see dealing with these oppositional children is a real challenge. And in such a case as Mark’s it would have been better not to get in such a situation however, there was a lot of other things going on in this case. But there are some things that will help you deal with these students. These are:
Understand the causes of ODD, the lack of positive attention and identifying ways to increase the opportunities to provide positive feedback
Modelling emotional control - ODD kids invariably have poor emotional regulation so it is important that you remain calm
Give short instructions with limited choice (i.e. ‘Would you like to play in the sand or have something to eat?)
It often works to give two similar choices with a time frame, such as “I’ll give you a minute to choose to write with the blue pencil or the red pencil” If there is no choice made after your time limit, the teacher makes the choice of something quite different such as, completing a different aspect of the task not using pencils.
Avoid negative consequences – this is difficult for older kids but for pre-schools emphasis on positive reinforcement on positive behaviours.
Emphasise the child’s importance by doing things they like with them – pay them real attention.
Finally – look after yourself. These kids consume a lot of the staff’s energy so make sure the organisation provides opportunities to withdraw from highly charged situations and have access to debriefing.
As schools return to full time attendance teachers should be aware that the prevalence of anxiety amongst their students will be elevated. We have dealt with anxiety previously (see Newsletter – Anxiety – 24 July 2017) however in this essay the focus will be on the effect anxiety has on the level of concentration.
Anxiety is that lingering apprehension or almost chronic sense of worry about particular things or even life in general. Professionals would diagnose someone as having clinical, generalized anxiety if they displayed three or more of the following over a six-month period:
Restlessness
Fatigue
Concentration Problems
Irritability
Muscle Tension
Sleep Disorders
In general, anxiety is described in three ways; panic attacks, social anxiety and generalised anxiety. We will focus on concentration which will be the product of their generalised anxiety.
In a recent article in the Conversation, 18 October, 2021 Elizabeth J Edwards from the University of Queensland reported that one in seven Australians are currently experiencing anxiety. The prevalence of anxiety among children is 6.1% of girls and 7.6% of boys. These statistics were before the COVID pandemic and if research reported in the Journal of Medical Association can be applied to our population then it has doubled.
Throughout these essays the impact of stress on our cognitive functions is at the heart of our approach to improving the learning outcomes (see Newsletters - Generating Stress – 20 July 2020 and The Complexity of Stress - 27 July 2020). It must be remembered that stress is just a response to our personal level of homeostatic equilibrium, that is how our needs are being met. In our everyday life we experience a continuous variation in these levels of stress depending on how our needs are satisfied by our immediate environment.
We have already pointed out that we need children to be suitably stressed to be motivated learn, and that there is an optimum level of anxiety that will have the child perform to their potential. Too little stress, they will not engage, too much and they will not take advantage of their cognitive resources (see The Complexity of Stress - referenced above). This is the focus of this essay. As you move along the level of arousal you go from low levels of anxiety up to extreme levels which result in trauma. The results of these levels of arousal come from the work of Bruce Perry, a professor of psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago are summarised in the graph below.
This graph shows how as we increase the level of arousal different parts of the brain dominate the thinking process and result in the behaviours associated with these processes. This is not to say no learning takes place when we are in an elevated condition. We use all our brain all the time it’s just a matter of where it is focused.
The following diagram shows how the capacity for high order thinking, the process of academic learning is influenced on our levels of stress and these levels are controlled by our security in our immediate environment.
The table below presents and excellent summary of the impact of stress on our ability to participate in meaningful education. Examining the bottom row shows as we increase of level of anxiety we move from being calm through the various stages of arousal to the level of terror. The next two rows above this show the impact on our cognitive organisation with the focus moving away from the neocortex, the part of the brain used for working memory, to lower parts of the brain. Eventually this means predominately using the autonomic section of the brain where all responses are reflexive.
The top row is important because to be truly motivated to learn we have to delay the gratification of that knowledge into the future. This really only occurs when we are calm and have access to these areas of the brain that create such memories, the limbic system and the neocortex.
This Newsletter puts reason to what we know to be true, school-based learning takes place when each child is calm and relaxed. This is why the management of classroom dysfunctional behaviours is so important. Whenever such behaviours exist the learning capacity is reduced proportionately to the level of stress that behaviour produces in the offending student, their classmates and the teacher.
Throughout these essays the focus has been on providing an environment that allows the students to focus on their schoolwork in a calm and secure manner. However, I am certain that any teacher who works in difficult communities will be confronted by the uncontrollable child who at times will behave in a way that is temporarily ‘out of control’. These are periods where the focus is on managing the immediate crisis. Without preparation when such an explosion happens what you do will depend on what you have planned to do before-hand. At the time of the crisis everyone, including your own’s stress levels will be so elevated it is difficult to make considered actions.
The following provides a scaffold to create a framework that will support your actions while experiencing such a crisis.
Of course, being forewarned is a benefit and the first thing to do is to identify any potential student who is likely to explode uncontrollably. Apart from preschool, and in some cases kindergarten all kids come to a new school year with a record. Teachers are entitled to be warned about those very difficult kids and if possible, have some prior knowledge about any potential problems with their behaviour. However, if you are not forewarned you will soon observe an explosion and after two or three such events you should start to collate that information for yourself. What you need to record is:
Previous episodes of persistent outbursts of severe behaviours. When these occur ask yourself:
Where these flare-ups are likely to happen: in the classroom, in a particular subject, moving between periods; knowing this will allow you to address that environment.
When do they happen: after a change of routine, when left alone, when they are with another particular student, in a crowd or when isolated.
Other factors:
The frequency these outbursts occur
The antecedent conditions of the environment, are they agitated when they arrive at school, maybe they have had a ‘custodial’ visit from a separated parent
Warning behaviours, do you see them becoming agitated
From this data you can build a picture of the conditions that you need to design and alter the classroom setting in a way that makes the uncontrollable, manageable.
Despite your best efforts there will be times when you are confronted with such an outburst and these events follow a particular pattern as shown below.
The Trigger
The information you acquire from following the steps above help you identify just what is the trigger for this outburst. The warning signs may be the emotional state of the student, they may be extra argumentative or just a bit more restless than usual. You can often see this heightened level of stress in their body language their muscles are tight, fists clenched, etc. Knowing possible triggers for a student may enable you to remove them or reduce their occurrence.
Escalation
You will observe the early phase of escalation in their body language, their eyes narrow, mouth tightens and jaw thrust forward. You may observe a change in their breathing patterns.
Their behaviour becomes more overtly threatening:
They become more defiant, disobedient, making insulting comments.
Their voice becomes louder, challenging, threatening, swearing, arguing
Body language becomes even more threatening – fists clenched, tapping feet or fingers, chest and shoulders puffing up, hands on hips
This is a time to start to intervene, to try to stop this crisis by following the steps below:
Don’t stand too close or touch them
Model non-hostile body language, hands off hips, fists unclenched, no finger wagging
Remind them of previous success they have had in gaining self-control; acknowledge their strong emotions but show confidence
Consider physical activity e.g., a supervised run or send them for a message, just get them out of the immediate environment.
The Crisis
At this stage the child is incapable of rational thinking. You will observe the following behaviours:
They may spit, push, kick, choke, head-butt, bite, pull hair, pinch, punch etc.
They may flee from room or grounds
They may use objects as weapons to smash, break or throw
The child has lost self-control and may harm their self-and/or others
The best action you can take at this time is to control your own behaviour. Deal with them in a way that shows that you are not going to get involved in the crisis. Address the child as follows:
Use a firm, low voice, refer to them by name and give a short clear instruction and repeat it several times if needed. Keep tone and volume of voice consistent
At times you may need to stand back and let a tantrum run its course. It may be necessary to remove other students/audience
Don’t attempt to intervene in a playground fight without back-up. Say STOP and send for help
After outburst get child to time-out ASAP
Be aware of your own reactions, take some slow deep breaths.
Recovery
After the crisis everyone needs to return to a calm state, to a condition known as homeostatic equilibrium where:
The student’s body chemistry is returning to normal
The muscles become progressively more relaxed
Ritual inappropriate behaviours become less frequent
It is important to note that the student is not yet at baseline and is vulnerable to re-escalation. The child should be moved to a quiet place where there is no audience, allowing them to calm down. This gives you and the rest of the class that same opportunity.
At this time, you should show concern for the student and support them. It is tempting to unload on them to get rid of your heightened stress but refrain from lecturing, becoming hostile etc. and just as important is to resist the temptation to rescue them.
Throughout all our communications one of the consistent principles for dealing with difficult kids is that we have a 100% rejection of the inappropriate behaviour and a 100% acceptance of the child! This is the time to demonstrate that principle.
Post Crisis
When the child has recovered enough you have to deal with them. Remember that their outburst has taken its toll on their physical condition. They may go through a stage of emotional withdrawal, crying, exhaustion, fatigue, depression, muscles relax and they may slump forward. They may be thirsty, hungry, or even need to urinate, their body has been under extreme levels of stress.
Psychologically they may feel regret or remorse over what they have done but for kids with severe dysfunctional behaviour which would attract the diagnosis of conduct disorder they are more likely to be concerned about the consequences you must impose.
You will need to discuss the event with the child. When doing so:
Use open ended questions with a long wait time and LISTEN. You don’t need to fill the silences
Discuss with the child what they could do differently next time. Let the ideas come from the child … don’t give them the answers
Have the child be specific about what they will do next time, telling you how that will look and sound. This helps them move towards change and growth and avoids “parrot responses”
Be sure you don’t reward the student for the outburst e.g. By giving too much TLC, special activity, food afterwards
Now is the time to talk about what happened but not why. Stick with what you saw and heard and focus on how the child calmed down … what was helpful?
Debriefing
This is that important time when you look after yourself. The following steps will help you do this:
Write a report stating who, when, where, what happened, injuries, follow-up ASAP. This can be quite cathartic! When finished date and sign it and file it, this is the data for future planning!
Don’t take it personally; remember these children have complex problems resulting from what has been done to them and these are not your fault. The cause of the outburst and how they behave during that crisis has nothing to do with you but how you deal with the event is the skill you can learn.
Revisit your crisis plan with a support person and make any necessary adjustments.
Teaching in difficult schools results in being exposed to such outbursts much more frequently. This will take its toll unless you deal with the pent-up stress that will naturally build-up in your body. Talking it over with someone who understands the environment in which you work allows you to relieve this stress. A supportive colleague is ideal.
You may talk it over with your ‘at home’ partner but this is not as effective. Home should be your haven a place to relax and see that your personal needs are met. Exercise is always important but it may be particularly beneficial after a day when you have dealt with such a crisis.
Working with damaged students is the most challenging work teachers face and the least acknowledged by educational authorities. However, the value of this work cannot be underestimated. These kids will never learn when they are in a state of conflict and that is a loss is not confined to that child. The other students who are victims or spectators to such outbursts will also be incapable of learning in any effective way and of course the teacher will be distracted from their planned lesson. This is a time when you must acknowledge the value of the great work you do.
Of all the public activities that are planned to re-start after lockdown, none seems to be more pressing for politicians than the opening of schools. There have been many promised dates that have come and gone but it seems, in the current situation with vaccination rates meeting acceptable levels schools will open in the near future. There has been plenty of advice on how this will happen but the one consideration that is not really addressed but is critical, is the anxiety that is inevitable for many of our students not to mention the staff. Not least of these concerns is the real fear of contacting this contagious disease.
Since lockdown was introduced students and staff had to learn to work in a completely different environment. It goes without saying the structure of each child’s ‘at home’ learning would vary from house to house. Some parents, who had time would develop their own timetable while others just let the kids work at their own pace hopefully getting their work done. In any case, most kids were living in isolation and this seclusion presents a significant problem.
Living near a beach, and being ‘retired’ I was conscious of the number of students who were in the surf during so called school time and, I know if I was them I would have ploughed through my lessons just to ‘hit the surf’. Now we are expecting the students to come back to a regimented program.
These constantly changing conditions will create a deal of anxiety for the students as well as the staff and parents. They have all been through a continual upheaval through this pandemic. The whole community has been unsure about the future, this has been going for almost two years with no real solution in sight. Some students are more hypersensitive to conversation than others. We all have different levels of self-confidence, and this will influence the level of anxiety we experience.
The immediate task for the school in regards to the mental safety of the students is to deal with the resulting anxiety. The social fabric of the classroom will have to be re-established, there is a need to reconstruct the sense of belonging to the group (see Newsletter - The Tribal Classroom – 6 April 2020 and Creating a Calm Environment – 3 November 2020).
One way of doing this is to take advantage of any opportunity to do some type of group work especially for younger students. Of course, the relationship with the teacher is critical and hopefully this has remained during the on-line meetings but the student to student relationships are just, if not more important.
As always, when we have to re-set any program in our classroom we need to restore the appropriate underlying properties and the diagram below illustrates these:
The focus on pedagogy is our core business, and it is while delivering the curriculum the other pillars to the model are established. This is what we do best but at this special time it is most important that the organisation of your classroom is very business-like! Think about the difference it makes when going out for dinner. If the seats, table arrangement, music, welcome from maître d’ and ambience are all not working in tandem, that affects your experience and overall enjoyment; it’s the same in the classroom.
Until the students have completely resettled it is important to have that emphasis on cooperation. Have a lesson plan that incorporates teacher talk; paired work; sharing with class; workbooks; review/game. Paired and group activities promote student relationships and have them present their findings to the class. I know this is telling you to suck eggs but kids working in isolation is good practice some of the time but less important in circumstances where we are trying to re-establish peer relationships.
Remember humour is one of your most powerful teaching tools! Laughing is proved to:
Improve memory recall
Increase conceptual understanding
Increase attention to a task
Stimulate brain regions important for complex and abstract thinking
Activate brain growth
Make sure your class is a place where there is an emphasis on having fun!
It is most important to reinstate the structure in the classroom (see Newsletter – Creating Structure - 6 April 2020). This is not about classroom rules although it often is and at this time might be needed until the accepted behaviour is established. However, it is about establishing the routines you want in your lesson, the steps that you provide the students with the predictable sequencing of the lesson. This provides the students with a sense of security and fosters confidence in the way the lesson will go. The establishment of ritual at the start of each ‘lesson’ allows the teacher to quickly focus the children on the task at hand.
It is vital that both the teacher and the student knows what will happen in a lesson, there are no surprises, these expectations will need to be restored (see Newsletter – Expectations – 6 April 2020). This is the remembered experience of what happened before when the particular environmental conditions were present. If they know what happened before, they can imagine what will happen next and if the structure is effective and the expected consequence is delivered, the student is not disturbed and can remain calm.
There is an old adage that people live up or down to your expectations and this is critical for the teacher but it is only a truism if the teacher and student know what that expectation is!
Research has shown that the teacher/student relationship is the central quality of a successful learning experience (see Newsletter – Relationships – 4 April 2020 and Competence Vs Warmth 31 August 2021). The advantages of a strong, supportive relationship are:
Teachers higher in ‘warmth’ tend to develop greater confidence in students
Students who believe their teacher is a caring one tend to learn more
Positive relationships enhance social, cognitive and language development
Students’ feelings of acceptance by teachers are associated with emotional, cognitive and behavioural engagement in class
It is important to understand that this relationship is professional, you are the adult in the room and you are the one with academic qualifications that authorise your right to be in that classroom. You have to support their needs, they have no obligation to support your needs, this makes you the authority.
It is also important to understand that as the students gain in competent independence the significance of the relationship becomes less important. All things being in place, by the time they reach Year 12, the teacher becomes more of a facilitator. But, in the very early years of schooling the teacher/student relationship is critical. The exception to this is when you are dealing with very damaged kids of whatever age. In a sense they need the same attention as the infant until they regain some control over their behaviour. This latter circumstance is the focus of all our work.
Finally you must look after yourself! Be aware of the following conditions:
Don’t take the inevitable problems with the end of lockdown personally. The school and the children create complex problems – these are not about you, but you have the professional responsibility to address them
Be aware of your feelings, you should be ‘stressed’, it is not easy to deal with when you have so many students to nurture so look after your self
Debrief – Discuss problems with an appropriate supportive colleague. Keeping things to yourself never solves the problem (see Newsletter – Debriefing – 4 November 2020)
Report to your supervisor in writing any issues that have been unforeseen or potentially threatening. This can be quite cathartic! Date and sign it
Look after yourself at home too - exercise, relaxation and maybe listen to music, etc. but rarely is alcohol the answer!
It is a very difficult time for all teachers and in the present environment support from the top is limited if not non-existent so it is essential you look after yourself and your colleagues!
It seems unthinkable that a Government as corrupt and incompetent as the current Liberal/National coalition led by Morrison and Joyce could be returned to power but it is a real possibility. The question is why is Labor rejected bALPy their traditional voters, the ‘true believers’, the very people they claim to support?
As a young Labor Party member, in the early 70’s I have fond memories of my involvement in the ALP. We felt part of the movement but this was the time when two ‘clever’, inter-related social changes emerged that changed the way organisations were managed and it marked the beginning of a drift away from the Party and the Unions.
Prior to this time intellectual thought was dominated by the physical sciences. In universities those academics who taught ‘social’ subjects felt the dismissive attitudes from those who did real research with numbers. Economists, psychologists, all the social sciences who were craving the same status adopted a rationalist approach to their studies; they started to measure. Amongst the changes emerged the famous Harvard University’s Master of Business Administration where the application of the ‘scientific method’ became the benchmark for all things related to business organisation.
If this rationalist approach defined the ‘how to approach’ to organisation, the answer to what to organise was supplied by the emergence of neoliberalism, the reliance on market-oriented reforms. In industry, and in the public service a new class of leader materialised, those driven by targeted efficiency and pleasing the ‘market’. These new ‘leaders’ became the ruling class of their organisations: they know what is best and believed in their right to dictate the strategies of their organisation. The resulting sense of self-importance put them at risk of becoming arrogant and disconnected from their base.
The result of these two paradigm shifts meant corporations and associations were controlled from the ‘top-down’, a change from the previous organisational style that was ‘bottom-up’, the grass roots providing the purpose of the enterprise and management ensuring these goals were the target of their efforts.
The ALP, always looking to improve soon adopted this change. From this time on Labor progressively became a top-down organisation and a new class of leaders infiltrated head office using their position power to impose policy, replacing the strategies desired by the branch membership. Over the following years there has been a gradual but consistent erosion, not only of the relevance of branch membership but a resulting decline in the enthusiasm for the Party. Although this disenchantment was slow however, there were a few significant markers that symbolised this change.
The most telling period of this disconnect and one that will be disputed was during the leadership of Hawke and Keating. These two have been and still are held-up as true heroes of the Labor Movement; they are still revered by the Party faithful. Even today Albanese, who could potentially lose the unlosable election still clings to their reforms. He constantly refers to their reforms as the way of the future with his sermons on productivity projects as the way back to prosperity. He still clings to the failed, neoliberal practices on which those reforms were built.
Of course Hawke and Keating were very popular and both excellent parliamentary performers and they managed to take the Party along with their adoption of free market policies. Their leadership teams understood the new approach and dominated powerful positions in the Party organisation or Union leadership. The myth of their positive contribution to the ‘economy’ was promoted by the big end of town, the favourable media coverage they enjoyed, and still do is the wealthy class perpetuating the lie that keeps them in a privileged position.
Granted, there was an apparent initial boost in the economy with the adoption of market-economics that are at the heart of their reforms. Each evening the financial reports indicated the improvements, especially for the share market and companies making record profits. Business thrived but these changes did nothing for the working class. Keating and Hawke’s policies reflected the ambitions of big business but, in their defence, they always referred to the lie that you need a strong economy to improve the pot of the working class. This faulty belief has its roots in Economics 101 – where the goal is to maximise profits. They, as all neoliberals only see the economy in this light, they are oblivious to the idea that it would be as valid to have a goal of say minimise poverty, a choice that would come from the ALP rank and file!
If they used their reliance on the rationalisation of the data they would discover that this shift was the beginning of the ever-widening income gap between the lowest paid workers and those at the top until we are at the point where the highest 20% has more than twice the average of the middle 20% and this middle group has almost three times the income of the lowest paid workers, hardly a policy of any Labor Government. This data should put to rest any belief in the neoliberal maxim of benefits of the ‘trickle-down’ effect, the rich will pass on benefits to the poor!
The evidence of the Labor leadership’s appreciation of the market economy is in their post- parliamentary careers. At the time of their retirement the Labor luminaries such as Hawke and Keating, along with others such as Neville Wran and Bob Carr smoothly transitioned from the leadership of the ‘worker’s party’ onto the Boardrooms of big business! These heroes of the workers sat down with the architects of worker’s poverty.
The decline in the welfare of the working class coincides with the fall in the support for the ALP. Fifty years ago, Labor got between 45% to 50% of the primary vote. Today this has dropped to 35% to 40%. Branches struggle to get enough members to man polling booths or do the letter box drops prior to elections.
The overt or even unintended arrogance of the leadership is there for all to see. In some cases that self-importance allowed party representatives to succumb to the temptation of criminal activities, considering they were above the law. There was a time, not long ago when the NSW Labor Party was a standing joke. The trials of Edie Obeid and his cronies is well documented but what has to be understood is that their behaviour was carried out while they were in Parliament, representing the ALP. The question must be asked, how did this happen? Was it an acceptance that they were amongst the entitled, above the law?
These events marked the time when most of the true believers had left and the ALP became an organisation made up of those who see the Party as a way to get into politics. Despite the rhetoric the focus is no longer on social justice but on what will win votes; pragmatism has replaced principle.
Some telling events where this is evident are failure to support the refugees on Tampa, a cowardly decision that has held the party hostage to a ‘stop-the-boats’, off-shore detention - refugee policy. The ‘market driven’ decisions on fossil fuels, etc. demonstrates their lack of honest leadership. The latest support of tax cuts for the rich makes real supporters cringe!
The ‘clever- boys/girls’ of the ALP somehow understand they need the branch members and have produced plenty of enquiries into how they can re-engage with the grass roots. John Faulkner was critical about the alienation of the older supporters probably vocalising the problem of the marketing approach of the leadership – ‘like us on Facebook’! And, following the latest loss at the ballot, Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson analysed how the Shorten campaign got it so wrong. Having such entrenched insiders ensured they would not get to the issue highlighted by Faulkner, they don’t see the membership in terms other than they ‘must be led’. All the suggested reforms are ‘top-down’ solutions and do nothing to re-establish any power to the branches.
The motivation for this essay has been the latest in a long line of ‘captain’s choices’ for preselection for the up-coming election. The Labor elite are again demonstrating that they know best. The selection of Daniel Repacholi in Hunter is one example. I doubt branch members would have selected a candidate whose first actions was to remove pictures of naked women in sexually provocative posing with assault rifles from his Instagram account. More telling is the appointment of Christine Keneally over the community candidate Tu Le in Fowler. This is a blatant demonstration of the believed privilege of the leadership group. The shame of their stated policies on ethnic diversification is ignored while a resident from the wealthy North Shore makes bare-faced claims that she really belongs to that electorate, after all she has committed to move in.
The ALP has lost its way driven by a desperation to get back into power but if they succeed or more to the point when this pitiful excuse for a government is thrown out, the resulting Labor will not know what to do! Ben Chifley’s Light on the Hill has been replaced by the harsh florescent light in the latest focus group.
The hustle and bustle of life in our schools seems to be growing at an ever-increasing rate of knots; already there is really too much we have to do. This chaos is intensified by the reliance on digital devices. The constant demands for our attention results in us having to move from one seemingly important task to the next just to get through our work. This switching of our focus can give us the impression that we are able to get everything done but the evidence clearly demonstrates that our so-called multitasking results in a reduction of the quantity and quality of our output. This demand on time and the resulting efficiency loss is a problem across our economy but for schools the loss of productivity has distressing outcomes for student’s learning.
An accepted definition of multitasking is the practice of performing two, or more tasks simultaneously or more accurately in very quick succession. Examples are when you are perhaps marking an essay in the staffroom and someone comes in and asks about an event that happened last week. You stop your assessment, address the issue and return to the marking. Of course, too often many more ‘tasks’ must be addressed before you get back to the original assignment.
Fundamentally there are lots of things our brain simultaneously controls; things like our need to breathe, change our sugar levels, etc., things that are reflexive and there are some habits that are so ingrained, we act on them without consideration. At this level we do multitask. However, in the past we needed to concentrate when we were hunting for food, not only was this important for survival but when stalking dangerous prey any mistake could be fatal. So, for higher order tasks, the work we do at school the evolutionary formation of the functions of our brain, dictates that we can only seriously focus on one thing at a time.
There is plenty of evidence that multitasking degrades the quality of any one’s work. It is estimated that there is up to a 40% reduction in productivity. This occurs because of:
The increased time it takes to get through the task. It is more that an aggregation of the actual time taken to do the task, if you added the minutes spent either uninterrupted or tallied the actual time you were ‘on task’ would not be the same. You lose time going back to pick-up where you left off.
Our accuracy level decreases; when we shift our focus, a change referred to as context switching, we tend to forget the last part of the work from which we were distracted. We rarely go back to clarify assuming it will come back and besides we don’t have time.
This productivity loss increases as the complexity of the task we have at hand increases.
With all the extra demands placed on teachers by their employer and despite the demonstrated loss of overall productivity it is impossible to avoid multitasking, it is not a practical option. The Education Department puts more significance into volume of work they can get out of a teacher over the quality of the work from that same teacher. It is illogical but we have to live with it!
I suggest we approach this problem in two ways, the first is to manage those tasks you know you have to address, our fixed work and then also how to survive the unexpected interruptions. Let’s deal with the first challenge.
There are tasks we know we have to do in the day ahead. In a sense we have some control over these and so we can plan our time to deal with them in a structured way. Here are some suggestions:
Make a to-do list and get the things that you least want to do over with first. When I was a child I had to eat my cabbage, I always left it until last. The fact was that I knew I had to eventually eat the cabbage and this realisation spoiled the rest of my meal. Since I have sort of grown up I get the things I don’t like done first and then I can look forward to the rest of the day.
Prioritize your tasks - of course, there might be reasons to put some tasks at the top of the list; say a report might be due by recess, then this will be at the beginning of your day sheet. The thing is to get some structure into your plan
Group similar tasks, some of your work will require the use of supporting resources so it makes sense to use them when they are available. Those resources also include your cognitive skills.
Reduce distractions, the staffroom might not be the best place to get work done, other teachers will be there resulting in plenty of interruptions to take you away from your work so, if possible find a quiet place to operate.
Monitor your progress – set yourself little short-term goals so when your reach them you get a little intrinsic reward. For example, if I have to mark 30 exams I might divide these into blocks of five. Even checking the five off in a box can give you a lift!
Delegate tasks, if needed – there are many things you have to do that are just part of a combined task. Don’t do work that is other’s responsibility, they won’t really thank you and you’re not helping them.
At first, you will need to plan to make your to-do list but eventually it will become your ritualised approach to the day. At the end of my career creating my to-do list was in draft form at the end of the previous day and in the morning, after I checked ‘overnight events’ I finalised my ‘day sheet’.
However, in the real world of teaching no day can be planned, everyday throws-up challenges that have to be dealt with IMMEDIATELY and so whatever task you were on must be left! This is stressful and so I go to the very process I recommend whenever you are facing a challenging situation and that is to put on your boundaries (see Newsletter - Teaching Practical Boundaries – 31 July 2017). In summary, do the following:
Stay Calm – this is always the critical step but particularly when switching your focus. Remember, it is the last thing you were focusing on that is least remembered so while you are take taking a breath, think seriously about where you are up to in your task. This allows you to return with a bit more certainty and at least know you should back-track to revise this part of the work. Of, course sometimes things are extreme so make it your practice to always revise the last processes you made when you return.
The following deals with the boundaries.
What is Really Happening – once you have closed the previous task then deal with the current issue. Ask the question what is really happening and when you have this you ascertain the following:
Who is Responsible, if it’s my responsibility then I have to do something to make things right
If it is someone else’s fault, I have to know what I want and then decide what I have to do to make that happen.
Take-Action, if you want things to change you have to act. Eventually your involvement in the distraction will be over and so you can return to your current task.
Just as you made sure you closed down the task before you were distracted it is very important that you closed down the distraction before you get back to work. If the event has been stressful you might need some time to debrief and gather your thoughts. Don’t rush back straight away because the quality of your efforts will be diminished because you are still thinking about that event.
The need for multitasking is inevitable in today’s schools. However, the loss of efficiency could be reduced by your ability to plan your approach to the tasks you must do.
Dealing with Students with Severely Dysfunctional Behaviours
Integrate or Special Placement
Previously I discussed the issues that need to be addressed regarding the discipline and welfare practices within schools (see Newsletter - Student Discipline – What About Welfare – 7 September 2021). This is relevant considering the current review on student discipline, being conducted by the Education Department. The draft proposal makes a series of vague recommendations that promises increased support but imposes diminished access to consequences that would be targeted at specific students with highly disruptive behaviours.
The document discusses behaviour in general terms and would be acceptable for the vast majority of students. However, it fails to address the difficulty schools confront dealing with those students whose behaviour is outrageous and threatens not only their own safety and security but also endangers all other members of the school community. It must be noted that these students are most in need of support and more importantly compassion from everyone in the community but their offensive behaviour repels such management.
The foundations of the dysfunctional behaviours that clash with that which is acceptable in a school community is varied and as always, I do not include those students who have a psychotic or biological disorder. Regardless, the beginnings of this dislocation occurs in the early years of their development. I identify three fundamental causes which I will now describe briefly but for a more detailed account I have posted Chapter 2 of my book Neuroscience and Teaching Very Difficult Kids (Austin Macauley, London 2021) in the resources of our webpage Frew Consultants Group.
The causes are:
Abuse – this includes physical, sexual, emotional/social and the less acknowledged intellectual and spiritual. When children are abused the elevated stress levels inflicts real physical damage to the brain with decreases in those areas that assist cognition, the hippocampus, prefrontal lobes, the cerebellum and the corpus collosum along with an increase in the size of the amygdala. The result is these students struggle to comprehend the messages coming from their environment and becoming super-sensitive to perceived external threats.
Neglect – children need to learn how to behave and this learning is a result of being exposed to situations that threaten their security. They either learn by trial and error to behave in ways that restores their equilibrium or are taught by a parent or carer how to behave. There are two ways this process can undermine normal development:
The first is that the parent/carer provides an environment that is at odds with what is considered ‘normal’. If, for instance a child wants its mother’s attention it may be that the only way to achieve this is to scream loudly and hit out at the mother. If this works then the child has acquired the behaviour for getting attention. However, later, at school when the child is excluded and becomes desperate for acceptance they will employ those behaviours that worked in their childhood but these are ‘dysfunctional’ in the classroom!
The second is when children are not stimulated enough. The brain develops throughout life but will never be as active as in the first three years. To develop, it requires the stimulus so the appropriate behaviours can be learned. For many behaviours there are critical periods of time when the conditions in particular parts of the brain are primed for this development. The most cited is for sight – a child born with cataracts is blind they will not receive light as a stimulus and so will not learn to see. In the real world, children who have experienced this and have not had the cataracts removed by about the eighth month will not be able to interpret sight even when the cataracts are removed despite there being nothing wrong with the neurological circuitry for sight. It is just that when the opportunity to learn to see is past, the brain removes the neurological matter for the sake of efficiency. A less dramatic but more common is the absence of appropriate attachment to others in the first years. This results in relationship problems later in life.
All too often, these children are the casualties of both abuse and neglect and it is vital that we understand this damage has been done to these kids, they are victims and should attract our compassion, However, their actions challenges those who are subjected to their threatening, dysfunctional behaviour.
Although these behaviours that arise from their malicious environment they manifest in various ways. The result of the behaviours is that they can’t effectively interact with their peers in a way that benefits themselves and their contemporaries. As an aside, the best thing, in fact the main task of a parent is to teach their child how to interrelate with their friends and their parents by about age three. After this, it is the quality of the contact with others that determines their sense of self. Using this understanding, the most helpful thing we can do for these damaged kids is teach them to re-engage with their classmates in a way that nurtures all parties. The question is how do we do this?
This has resulted in a clash of tactics between those who believe in dealing with the problem while maintaining the child’s presence in the school against those who advocate the removal for a period of time until the student ‘learns’ how to behave in a manner that allows them to return to school where they, and their peers can access their lessons; inclusion versus exclusion!
Almost exclusively, academics and bureaucrats support a policy of inclusion. Academics are extremely vocal in their advocacy for full integration and it is difficult to argue with their reasons for supporting this approach. However, they are naive about the reality that exists in public schools particularly in poor socio-economic areas. To implement their models would require a significant increase in resources that don’t exist in any public school. The current proposal from the department promises increased support without releasing details.
The department has made similar guarantees and allocated extra funding in the past but to paraphrase a former, leading consultant and principal ‘the promised support for schools in the 1990s that was provided rarely, if ever made it beyond District and Regional Offices. The increased necessary workload for teachers involving reports from specialist, doctors, counsellors, year advisors and teachers (repeated annually for each child) was a total inefficient use of resources. District and Regional personnel had to be employed to review all the material with schools receiving the pittance left over after all their salaries had been paid. Their role seemed to deteriorate into periodically telling teachers how they were getting it wrong’! Experience suggests they will not deliver the support required at the school level and, as always imposing the responsibility for dealing with these kids back onto the school.
The bureaucracy cites the position of the academics for their support of inclusion, but I would contend the cost of providing alternate settings for these students is prohibitive compared with any cost of support in an existing facility. The cynic in me suspects they also cater for the parents who fervently challenge any suspension, let alone exclusion.
Neither the academics nor the bureaucrats consider the damaging effect the extreme behaviours have on the teaching and learning of the other members of the classroom. This population that has always been disregarded but it is these students who also suffer from the presence of these students. It has been established that students with extreme behaviours and the chaotic classrooms that are a product of those behaviours is a significant retardant to learning outcomes not to mention the potential psychological and/or physical damage classroom members could suffer. Authorities continue to look at the damage these children inflict on a school in an abstract manner, for teaching practitioners their presence presents a serious challenge they can’t ignore.
Before we continue this discussion, it is important to seriously examine what is best for the student involved. The key questions that are never really forensically addressed are presented below:
What is best for the child – these severely dysfunctional students require intensive therapeutic interventions to help them deal with their mental health issues. Where can these be best delivered?
What is best for their peers – the presence of these students in a class presents a significant barrier to all learning outcomes regardless of the motivation of the remaining students.
What is best for the teachers and the school community – in the existing state of affairs all concerns are on the offending student with equity being put forward as the reason they should be retained. I would contend that equity applies to everyone in a community and the presence of any child with a disability should be provided with the required support where ever that can best be delivered so that everyone can reach their potential.
I would argue that these are questions never really considered by those who are responsible for the policy.
I would strongly note that the position I advocate is primarily to give these damaged students the most effective support, the whole purpose of our Group is to provide resources to teachers to help them achieve this.
As pointed out in the previous Newsletter, schools can have as many as six children who would attract a diagnosis of severe dysfunctional behaviour, such as conduct disorder for every 100 students. The absolute minimum requirement to affectively deal with even one of these students would be:
One support officer – someone who is always available to look after the child when the inevitable ‘melt-down’ occurs. Allocating a certain number of hours may appear to be supportive but the timing of any outburst rarely matches with the presence of that support officer
A qualified mental health professional appointed to every secondary and large primary school to deliver appropriate, ongoing therapy for these students. An important point must be acknowledged around the provision of suitable mental health interventions. Most existing programs refer to providing ‘trauma informed practice’. This catch-all label is meaningless unless you understand what this practice refers to. In all my research the only effective intervention to deal with complex trauma, and these kids are inevitably in this category is long term intense one on one therapy. This is just not available in public schools and in damaged, remote areas the presence of any qualified psychologist/psychiatrist, never mind in sufficient numbers is improbable
Intensive training and development for all teaching staff – teachers are barely trained in adequate techniques for dealing with the expected disruptive behaviours in any classroom but there is no effective and appropriate training I have seen. As mentioned in the point made above, there are some courses offered to teachers that advocate ‘trauma informed practices’ but I strongly maintain that teachers should never get involved in any form of therapeutic interventions with these students. There is a real potential to make matters worse; I advocate training in providing an effective learning environment that presents structure and expectations while retaining a professional relationship (see Newsletter – Competence and Warmth - 31 August 2021)
An on-site pleasant and secure setting where the student can be located when they are inevitably psychologically overwhelmed
The number of resources outlined as being required is not an exaggeration, these kids are extremely damaged and to deal with the potential numbers in a large secondary school in poor socio-economic areas is being quoted as high as twenty-six per 100 students. These extra resources, that would be required would be extremely significant. There is nowhere near any effective support in the current administration and I would argue they will never be provided.
The provision of off-site settings for these students to attend has always been the reluctant compromise for addressing this problem. The drawback is that these special facilities require buildings, fully trained staff and effective programs. The current programs offered by existing settings are ad hoc and at best a reflection of the opinion of existing staff, particularly the principal.
Regarding these facilities, apart from the requirements outlined above other current issues would need to be addressed. These are:
The lack of sufficient places – schools are desperate to find a suitable place for these students and all would have a substantial waiting list.
There is an inability to access such placements in rural and remote areas.
Inconsistent access to programs. Staff who are not school based and know the students control the Placement Panels
Special training and development for all staff appointed to these setting. There is no such training available and teachers appointed are just expected to manage these most difficult students
Integration is variable. For example, the 4:1 Model, that is four days at the setting and one day at the referring school is very unpopular with schools and are extremely difficult to justify for all students. Integration should only occur when the student has gained the skills to form real friendships. A strong case could be made for that integration not to occur at the referring school, their history will bring unfair challenges from staff and students they have previously damaged.
There is no recognition of the skills and experiences of the personnel in these school and is not seen as a ‘good career move’
This is a time when the department is inviting comments on their proposed Discipline Policy. I would suggest that the critique presented here should form the foundation of that policy, the draft promises much in the way of support but unless that is spelled out and reflects the bare minimum outlined above, history would suggest the ‘promises’ will not materialise while the reduction in schools’ abilities to provide meaningful interventions, that is time out is reduced. Real investment into effectively dealing with this problem may incur a short-term cost but the long term benefit for the student and their community lasts a life time.
NSW Department of Education is currently reviewing its Welfare and Discipline Policy and the proposed change reflect the Department’s preoccupation with providing flattering statistics rather than a focus on the students who need support. The proposed policies are designed to reduce the statistics of suspensions etc. without providing schools with any functional alternative consequence to help those students whose behaviour interferes with their learning, their cohort’s learning and the teacher’s ability to present their planned lesson.
This trend of weakening the teacher’s and school’s ability to deliver effective interventions that address a student’s dysfunctional behaviour has persisted for years. I believe this is in response to the vocal protests of the parents of these children and the condescending attitude of academics who propose ‘alternative’ interventions. The latter make the assumption that these kids can be ‘controlled’ and more naively the resources required to implement the programs they recommend are provided. It is this failure of the Department to provide the adequate resources for schools to actually deliver effective welfare interventions that perpetuates the persistent problems severe behaviours present. It is shameful, but not unexpected that the department ignores or even acknowledges their dereliction of responsibility but continues to place the accountability on to schools!
This essay examines the role of discipline and welfare, with particular emphasis on the extreme end of the dysfunctional, behaviour scale. Apart from those few, unfortunate children who suffer from real psychotic illness, the vast majority of students that fall in this category do so because of their aberrant, early childhood development (see Newsletters - The Impact of Neglect – 12 September 2017 and TheCharacteristics of the Abused Child – 26 September 2017). Estimates of the numbers of these children with severe, dysfunctional behaviour range from between 3% to 11 % (however, this figure varies according to the socio-economic profile of the school). For most of the school population it only requires minimal use of discipline and welfare but even so some kids are a bit naughtier than others. It should be no surprise that teenagers in particular do get into a bit of trouble. It really is part of their responsibility to test boundaries to gain independence but most of these are easily dealt with. It is at the last two levels where the strength of a school’s program is tested. The ideal Discipline and Welfare Policy can be summarised in the diagram below.
Integrated Discipline and Welfare Program
It has to be acknowledged that the use of time out is the only practical consequence for disruptive and damaging behaviours and it is this cohort that will be subjected to the more severe form of time out, suspension. Suspensions are never imposed easily, in some research I conducted it takes on average two hours of the school executive’s time to make use of this action; of course in some cases the amount of time is much more and this comes from the school’s existing budget of personnel. Over the last twenty years or more there has been a progressive erosion about the application of all forms of time out.
I have written extensively about the application of Time Out, (see Newsletter - Time Out– 17 July 2017) and I have included a full chapter from my book Insights into the Modern Classroom devoted to that subject (see Resources page - Frew Consultants Group). These sources outline the practice of using this form of consequence for dysfunctional behaviour. I am not going to discuss this here except to point out that Time Out is the only discipline tool schools have to deal with these extreme kids and not to use it discounts the value it affords to the school and more importantly the offending student.
Let’s take the example of a student with severe, antisocial behaviours that manifests as physical and/or psychological violence to their class mates or the staff. No matter how the Department tries to hide the existence of these kids the statistics confirm their existence and most public schools experience this type of behaviour on an all too regular basis.
As mentioned above, in some areas the numbers are much higher than others. In the research I cited previously the number of long-term suspensions in a district in Western NSW was 5.8 per 100 children, that is for a school with say 500 students there would have been 29 long-term suspensions while in another district in North Sydney had 0.5 long-term suspensions per 100 students which translated into 2.5 long-term suspensions. The workload the behavioural problems generated varies immensely yet the department demands the same overall compliance for both districts. In the latest expulsion statistics I could get (2016) over three hundred students were expelled from the system, this would only occur after multiple suspensions.
We have to accept a couple of facts:
That the behaviour of these most damaged kids can not function in regular school until they have learned to socialise in a manner that allows them to join in and to be accepted by their class mates and the school
School staff neither has the training nor the time to implement any effective interventions
School counsellors would need specialist training, particularly in dealing with early childhood trauma however, even with such training they would not have the time
The only way to effectively address the needs of these children is in specialist settings.
I can already hear the outcry from those who resist such exclusion and I would happily support their position if schools were provided with the appropriate number of extra staff suitably trained in mental health issues along with the capital resources needed to accommodate these. However, without such support forcing these students to remain at a school exacerbates the suffering for the student and the schools. As this is the situation across NSW schools, and I expect the rest of Australia the reality is that the current conditions are abusive for the student and the rest of the school community and the Department is responsible for this abuse.
There is no disputing the fact that dysfunctional behaviour continues to be the major impediment to learning outcomes in public schools. The Department continues to ignore this fact and places it’s faith in ‘compulsory’ training in being a ‘quality teacher’ or more recently a ‘leader’, neither will have any impact on the problems caused by these most difficult kids yet somehow the leadership feel they are making a difference.
A less charitable person than myself would point to the fact that parents have identified the problem caused by these students and have migrated their kids to the private system where these students are either never enrolled or they are ‘expelled’ at the first sign of trouble. The result is we are left with two different education systems and no prizes for identifying the system available for those in the low, socio-economic communities.
In no way do we blame the students who display these severe behaviours, the whole approach of our service is to support these kids who deserve our compassion. It is outrageous that the government’s response, through the department is to continue to ignore the problem while progressively increasing public funding to private schools. The result is a social residualisation of our comprehensive public schools and a dislocation of our community!
The principals of the company have had long careers in education with a combined total of eighty-one years service. After starting as mainstream teachers they both moved into careers in providing support for students with severe behaviours.
