Chapter 8 begins with a story about Jim Fay going to court as a teenager.

6 Notes

Jim’s dad sends him to court on his own. The authors’ compare this experience to what would have happened today. They state that self-concept is at an all-time low.

A large part of the dilemma relates to the loss of the extended family. It takes a community to raise a child, and we, in large part, have lost that. Before, if young parents were having a problem, the normal procedure was to talk to Grandma, who had built up years of wisdom through experience. More often than not, a comment like, “Your father was like that…” gave not only comfort, but also a strategy. This strategy was especially effective because it considered many individual aspects about a child in terms of family values, (sub)cultural mores, and societal expectations. In essence, Grandma was able to help young parents devise effective individual behavior plans for their children. (Love and Logic, pg 116)

This is a two-fold discussion post.

First, what are your thoughts between the now and then comparison at the beginning of the chapter?

Secondly, how do we as teachers (whether you agree with the author’s idea of why we’ve lost self-concept or not) come up with behavior plans or classroom management strategies that consider the individual child, family values, the culture, and societal expectations? Should behavior plans in school consider all of those? What is reasonable to expect of the child, parent, and the teacher? Whatever your view is, what will you do this year to play your part?

You’re welcome to answer this in a reblog, but it is easier to follow responses if you copy and paste the question into a new post. :-)