Preventing Bad Behavior Might Actually Be the Wrong Goal
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that schools should focus on responding effectively to misbehavior rather than trying to prevent every incident.
Key Takeaways
- Prevention has limits - No school can prevent all misbehavior, and trying to creates an impossible standard
- Effective response matters more - How a school handles incidents when they occur determines whether they escalate or resolve
- Shift the focus - Instead of 'how do we prevent this?' ask 'how do we respond when it happens?'
Transcript
It just occurred to me that prevention is the wrong goal when it comes to dealing with violence, when it comes to dealing with behavior problems in schools.
Collectively, at the environment level, we want to prevent behavior problems, right?
We want to prevent incidents of violence.
But at the individual level, prevention is actually a counterproductive goal.
And here's what I mean by that.
If we strive to get better outcomes by essentially protecting each individual from anything that might trigger them or put them in a situation where they're going to make a bad decision, that's good for the environment because it results in fewer problems.
But it's worse for the student in the long run because it means that they're not actually developing any self-control.
They're not developing...
any self-discipline to deal with those triggers, those stimuli that are resulting in those bad behaviors.
And I think consequences are a big part of teaching self-control.
They're a big part of developing self-control.
But what I'm seeing lately is really a kind of coddling where we say, well, in order to keep you from doing something that you'll regret or that we will not be happy with, we're going to try to protect you from stimuli that may trigger you to make a bad decision.
And again, like that's good for the environment, but I think it's really short-sighted and bad for the student because it's not transferable.
They can't take it with them when they walk out the door.
So at 4 p.m., that does them no good.
On Saturday, that does them no good.
In the summer, that does them no good.
When they graduate or leave school permanently, it does them no good because they haven't developed the self-discipline to make good decisions when they're under stress, when they're under pressure, when somebody is provoking them.
And I've said several times in my videos that life is full of provocations.
You are going to have people give you a hard time.
You're going to have people try your patience.
And one of our biggest responsibilities to help students develop self-discipline is to help them learn how to do that in a constructive way, how to exercise self-control.
And they're not going to get it right every time.
Kids are going to make mistakes.
Adults make mistakes.
Kids are going to lose their cool.
And consequences are a normal part of that.
but i'm concerned that we've become so afraid of consequences and we've developed this misconception and this paranoia that consequences are harmful that we've started doing something that is in fact far far far more harmful to individual students and that is just trying to protect them from any kind of learning experience any kind of consequence of their actions and if students don't learn that their actions have consequences That sets them up to be in dangerous situations outside of school.
And it means that we're constantly running around trying to take responsibility for and prevent behaviors that really are up to the individual student to prevent.
Let me know what you think.