Two false ideas about consequences 1
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why consistent, progressive discipline works better than trying to customize consequences for every student.
Key Takeaways
- Consistency Matters Most - Consequences work when students can reliably predict what will happen after misbehavior.
- Misbehavior Is A Gamble - Students act up when they think they might get away with it or face only a minor consequence.
- Progressive Discipline Works - An escalating ladder of consequences helps students take behavior expectations seriously over time.
- Equity Requires Predictability - Clear, consistently enforced discipline policies create fairness and credibility across students.
- Use The Policy You Already Have - Most schools already have a progressive discipline policy in the handbook but fail to enforce it consistently.
Full Transcript
There's this idea going around that for consequences to work, you have to figure out what's going to motivate that particular student and then apply a consequence that's just right for that particular student in that particular moment. And often that means a lower consequence than policy would give them. And there's an even more incorrect idea going around that consequences don't work at all, that kids just get discouraged and act even worse. Like, both of those ideas are wrong. For consequences to work, they just need to be consistent. When kids are acting up, they're taking a gamble that it's going to be worth it.
They're taking a gamble that they're either going to get away with it, or the consequence is going to be small enough that it was worth acting up and not worth exercising self-control. And if we want kids to act in their rational best interest, we have to be predictable when it comes to consequences. See, when we encourage kids to gamble, when we encourage them to take their chances because we are afraid to be consistent, then we are encouraging bad behavior. We are encouraging the very kind of risk-taking and disruptive behavior that we don't want to see in our classrooms and on our campuses. So, if you want your school to be safe, if you want it to be a place where learning is the priority, if you want students to treat each other well, if you want kids to be happy to come to school every day because everybody else is acting right, you have to have what's called a progressive discipline policy. And a progressive discipline policy creates that consistency because it lays out in writing, in your student handbook, what the consequences for different behaviors are.
And there are levels. So if there's a minor incident, that can get a lower-level consequence for the same thing. If it's repeated, you get a higher level consequence. Maybe the first time is a warning, the second time is a detention. Maybe the third time is an in-school suspension. But there has to be an escalating ladder of predictable consequences.
That predictability is key, and that escalation is key. The progressive nature of consequences is essential for making sure that kids don't just take their chances. If you want kids to take their behavior seriously, to think twice before they make a bad decision, and act in ways that are consistent with learning, you've got to have a progressive discipline policy in place. The good news is, your school probably does. Almost all schools already have policies like this in place. If you look on your website, if you look in your student handbook, it almost certainly is a progressive discipline policy.
But what has happened over the last couple of years is schools have stopped enforcing those policies, and they've said, oh, Well, we need to be equitable, or oh, we need to be trauma-informed, or oh, we need to adapt to this particular kid because they're motivated by this particular thing. And all of those are just excuses for not being clear and consistent when it comes to discipline. If you are clear and consistent, that will produce equity. That will produce the fairness that is essential to the credibility of your discipline system. So...
Again, look at your existing handbook, look at your website. If you need a sample, you can go to principalcenter.com slash matrix and download my Progressive Discipline Matrix.
