respect in the classroom: when they’re not cool
Recently, in the context of an assignment I was doing for an MEd course, a colleague described an incident that happened to her a number of years ago. It happened in a class of mostly second-semester students. The class was a lively and interesting group, but with pockets of problematic students, including a clique of five or six young men who sat in the back and were occasionally disruptive, talking amongst themselves and exhibiting a less-than-focused energy.
The lesson took place just after midterm. It was one of a series of student presentations in which they were asked to choose a current issue discussed in a newspaper article, analyze the article for the class, and then provide questions for class discussion.
The student presenting on that day had previously confided to my colleague that he was gay, although my colleague doesn’t believe other students were aware of this. The student was also extremely shy; he had expressed reluctance to do an oral presentation at all, but had finally decided to take a stab at it. For his presentation, he chose an article from the Montreal Mirror column “Three Dollar Bill,” by local gay activist and journalist Richard Burnett. Although my colleague does not remember the specifics of the article, it dealt at least in part with gay-themed issues.
The student, although nervous, presented his topic well and provided a few questions for the class to discuss. The class was active and engaged, but the clique of young men in the back were laughing and seemed to be mustering macho bravado, until one of them called out, in a belligerent voice, “Miss, it’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
His friends roared at this. The student who had presented shrank visibly in his seat. The rest of the class buzzed, but my colleague made a sharp motion to quiet them, and then said to the student who had called out, “If you have nothing intelligent to add to this discussion, shut up.”
The class, including the clique of boys, fell deathly silent for a couple of moments. The student who had presented seemed to relax and straighten. Then my colleague asked another question to restart the discussion. The tone in the classroom for the rest of the lesson was much more focused and respectful, and the other students seemed to make an effort to be professional and positive. The boys in the back were quiet and caused no further disruptions.
After the lesson, the presenter approached my colleague and said that he was glad he had done the presentation. He felt that after she had silenced the discriminatory comments, the other students had rallied behind him, and he was proud of having conducted a discussion on issues that were important to him.
My colleague reported that, although she did not raise the issue again or speak to the offending student privately, the clique of boys, and the student she had reprimanded in particular, were much more respectful from that day forward, and that overall the atmosphere in the class changed for the better for the rest of the term.
When asked if she would react the same way if a similar incident happened today, my colleague considered for a moment if she would use the words “shut up,” and decided that she would. “If you’re strongly offended,” she said, “I think it’s appropriate to communicate that to them.”
Next post: what kinds of authority was my colleague making use of in this encounter?
(I orginally wrote up this incident as an assignment for an MEd course.)
That’s true. I think the key is that you as a teacher have established that respectful command of the classroom in the first place. Many younger teachers have these kinds of incidents happen and the offending students challenge the authority of the teacher.
I had an incident one time when a group of bad students were on a bus without me on there. As I walked up to the bus, it was rocking back and forth. Now, I had clearly explained the behavioral expectations for them, and they were clearly in violation of it.
I don’t even use profanity outside of school, but decided to go ahead and get on the bus and asked them “what the hell” they were doing. They were absolutely silent for the entire bus trip.
Would I do it again? Not in that way. Did it work? Absolutely!
I think you’ve pointed out something important, Joel, and it will come up in my next post – if the students don’t respect you in the first place, addressing them angrily is more likely to amuse than to shock them. It is a testament to the atmostphere this teacher had already established that the students took her reaction seriously.
HAHA, I try not to cross the line from “be quiet” to “shut up,” but if someone else says it when they’re trying to work, I do my best to not stop it, because it sends a clear message to the person. sometimes the kids need to take ownership in their own behaviors.
For sure. I often wish I were the more explosive type. My style is to get icy cold, which is not always effective, and which in fact sometimes offends students more than a simple “shut up.” Coldness is mean, whereas sharp words at the right time can be seen as self-assured.
This reeks of hypocrisy.
This teacher has students who are uncomfortable with homosexuality. One of them voiced this discomfort as a joke.
Instead of having an intelligent discussion, which could have helped these students become more comfortable and accepting, the teacher killed the discussion using a term she would surely punish her students for using.
Thus, any possibility of intelligent discussion was preemptively ended for the sake of continuing with well subordinated, predetermined curriculum.
Who is it that really needs to shut-up? Maybe you should ask what these students think.