Should High Schoolers Be Taught Basic Behavior?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why students usually already know basic behavior expectations and why principals should hold firm expectations from day one.
Key Takeaways
- Students Already Know - Most students have already been taught basic school behavior expectations in earlier grades, even if they claim otherwise.
- Avoid the Free Pass - Treating misbehavior as ignorance can accidentally reward students with a reset instead of accountability.
- Check With Prior Schools - If you're unsure whether students were taught an expectation, ask their previous teachers or school leaders—they'll likely confirm it.
- Start With High Expectations - Principals don't need to act as if students are brand new to school; it's reasonable to expect appropriate behavior immediately.
- Expect Evasion - It's developmentally normal for kids to try to dodge consequences, so administrators should stay calm and respond consistently.
Full Transcript
Do kids need to be taught basic expectations about how to act at school? I've seen a lot of discussion about this recently, and I saw an article with the National Assistant Principal of the Year talking about needing to teach very basic expectations to high schoolers.
And I thought this was a little bit strange because, like, surely they knew in elementary and middle school not to, you know, fight in the hallway and pee on the floor in the bathroom and stuff the sinks full of paper towels. Like, all the things that,
like, every school deals with. Every kid knows not to do those things. And I think there's this idea from PBIS that I sort of agree with, that we should explicitly teach the expectations that we have for behavior.
But I also think we shouldn't be naive about what students already know. Because if they know... that we think that they don't already know, then they basically get a free pass the first time. Like, if they, if they say, as the assistant principal in this article said, oh, they, they say, I didn't know when they get in trouble.
It's like... Yes, they did know, and they're just saying that to get a free pass this time, and, you know, only if they get caught multiple times will they possibly face any consequences. If they know, they can just say, oh, I didn't know, I wasn't supposed to do that. Like, yes, they know.
And the way to find out, here's the thing, the way to find out if they already knew the expectation is go ask the previous school. Go ask the middle school. Go ask the elementary school. The teachers will tell you, we taught them that. We reinforced that. We dealt with the same problem.
We set the expectations. We reinforced them. We had consequences. They know. So I think often we're giving kids a reset and a freebie when they come to our school, when they go to the next level of school, when they go from elementary to middle and middle to high school. Like, they did not just land on planet Earth from an alien spacecraft.
Like, they knew the expectations, and we shouldn't treat them like they're new to this world. Like, they know not to do these things. So I think it's okay because of that. To have high expectations from day one and to take it for granted, to take it as an expectation that kids will behave appropriately
and be ready with consequences if they don't. And people talk a lot about developmental appropriateness when it comes to behavioral expectations. One thing that we should expect is developmentally appropriate is trying to get away with stuff and trying to fool adults into thinking, oh, I didn't know.
Thank you for telling me. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't... It is developmentally appropriate for kids to be sneaky, for kids to try and trick us, for kids to get away with their behavior. And I don't think we need to be too stressed out about that.
I don't think we need to be too shocked by that. It's normal. It's normal for kids to, you know, try to get out of trouble when they get in trouble, and that's just part of what we have to deal with as educators, and especially if you're a school administrator, you know, that's just part of it.
You can't get too worked up about kids not telling the truth or trying to save their tails when they are in trouble. Let me know what you think.