Unlearn16: Class is in Session - October 09, 2024


The One Where I Deliver The Consequences - Teacher Edition

Topics
consequence regulation personal responsibility consequence education
The One Where We LISTEN to the Truth to Change the World The One Where I Forgot To Shut Off The Water

Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

158.21

Word count

2,784

Sentence count

199

Harmful content

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
00:00:00.000 class is in session. Hey, everybody, and welcome to Unlearned 16. Class is in session. Today,
00:00:09.420 you just got me. You got me a little bit late at school, sitting in my office, but I think
00:00:14.040 I wanted to talk about, well, I know I want to talk about something relatively important,
00:00:17.460 something that a lot of teachers struggle with and administrators, because I happen to be both
00:00:21.860 at this particular moment, is how do I create? How do I develop? How do I regulate
00:00:28.600 the correct consequence for either bad behavior or lacking in effort or whatever the issue tends
00:00:38.120 to be. Because I think a lot of the times teachers will overcorrect or undercorrect,
00:00:43.340 and it's very hard to find that middle ground. And it's also interesting, and nobody really
00:00:48.100 wants to hear this, but not everything works for every kid. And I'm going to come back to that in
00:00:52.360 second because, you know, consequence for one kid can be corrective, but the same consequence for
00:00:58.840 another kid can just have them dig in and make matters worse. Figuring out the kid's really
00:01:04.020 important. So first and foremost, I want to talk about this. The first thing I say to all teachers
00:01:10.300 sort of as a template is you need to establish three things right away and you need to stick
00:01:19.340 to them. Number one, you need to have, as my light source goes out, you need to have clear
00:01:24.880 expectation. Okay? So you need to have clear expectation. You need to be able to show those
00:01:32.280 students what you expect and why you expect it in your course or in your school. Clear. As clearly
00:01:40.860 as you possibly can delineate it. Understanding that everybody's going to interpret things
00:01:45.980 differently, apply things differently. So you're going to have to iron some stuff out, but you have
00:01:50.200 to have clear expectations. Number two, you have to have clear consequence. Crystal clear. If you
00:01:56.580 don't finish A, B, and C, here are the consequences. If you can't finish, here are the consequences.
00:02:03.080 If you have chosen to negate all responsibility, here are the consequences. Here are the consequences
00:02:08.040 If you decide that bad behavior or skipping classes or acting a fool, um, is your, you
00:02:16.540 know, reason for living here are the consequences.
00:02:18.860 And then here's the really, really uncomfortable part.
00:02:21.340 You got to follow through.
00:02:23.700 You have to have to, have to, have to follow through with your consequences and, and the
00:02:31.960 quicker and more consistently you can follow through with consequence, the quicker behavior
00:02:37.960 unwanted behavior is going to change. And that's, whether the public board does it or not,
00:02:48.680 I think is an incredibly important aspect of education. I think understanding the causes
00:02:56.940 of World War II or the political and economic impacts of the Cold War or quadratic formula,
00:03:06.400 these are all important elements. But if you can't learn reasonable skills and reasonable ways
00:03:15.620 that you can achieve a level of accountability and personal responsibility, the rest of them
00:03:21.040 are useless anyway. I truly believe that. And I truly believe that as the public system did away
00:03:27.360 with late marks, let's say, did away with grading that level of personal accountability, time
00:03:35.880 management and personal responsibility, we did students in injustice. And now we're going to
00:03:41.740 be doing the whole workforce in injustice because it's absolute ridiculous that those things aren't
00:03:48.740 measured in a significant way. I don't think they should be the only things measured.
00:03:53.460 And let me be clear, there's always exceptions to the rule, extenuating circumstance. I'm not
00:04:02.620 advocating that I sit here as a teacher and say, your assignment was due yesterday at 9am. And I
00:04:09.060 don't care if, you know, so-and-so was sick, or I don't care that you're, you know, you had to take
00:04:17.620 an emergency trip. Of course, those are rational conversations to be had. But there's a big
00:04:25.380 difference between rational conversation and excuses. And a parent's job and a teacher's job
00:04:31.800 collectively, because by the way, it needs to be collective or you're never going to get it done,
00:04:35.800 is to figure out how many excuses are they giving and why are they giving them and how do we rectify
00:04:41.420 the problem. And then it's a matter of on the same team, I promise you the best way you're ever
00:04:49.440 going to get to a student is be on the same team as their parent and to be on the student's team
00:04:53.220 too. Because students, and a lot of people in general, will fib, will, you know, avoid,
00:05:02.160 will flat out lie to avoid themselves getting into trouble, losing marks, or facing any sort
00:05:07.240 of repercussions. And you can allow it, and you can make space for that, or you can hold the line
00:05:13.180 firm. But holding the line firm is exhausting. So let's assume we have clear expectations.
00:05:18.520 Now, the key is, what are the consequences for a breach of those expectations?
00:05:27.360 That's the magic.
00:05:31.800 Consequence as it relates to the breached expectation.
00:05:36.420 So for number one, let's just run through a couple and we'll get an idea.
00:05:40.500 They didn't understand the work, so they didn't get the work done.
00:05:43.000 Cool.
00:05:44.200 That's okay.
00:05:45.680 Sometimes it's hard.
00:05:46.800 Did you work hard in class?
00:05:48.360 Because that's going to be issue number one.
00:05:50.020 If you're not taking personal responsibility, accountability to work in class and you're
00:05:54.200 leaving to go to the bathroom just because you're bored or you're trying to avoid work
00:05:57.960 or you're trying to talk to your friends and you're doing all of that, that's problem number
00:06:01.540 one.
00:06:01.840 There's a consequence for that.
00:06:03.280 That doesn't include me sitting beside you and helping you do the work because you did
00:06:06.520 understand it.
00:06:07.120 You just didn't bother doing it.
00:06:08.880 Or were you avoiding the work because you didn't understand it?
00:06:12.940 Those are two different questions and two different consequences.
00:06:16.060 Either way, let me be clear.
00:06:19.240 You have to get the work done.
00:06:21.600 You have to get the work done.
00:06:24.440 If the problem is you didn't understand it or you wanted to negate it and avoid it,
00:06:29.280 it doesn't matter.
00:06:30.340 The consequence still has to be the same.
00:06:32.500 It's just you might need different help in order to get that job done.
00:06:37.100 Right?
00:06:37.580 If you have a kid that's ridiculously late all the time,
00:06:41.820 well time needs to have a value right so they're constantly late with them with them coming to
00:06:51.620 class or constantly late with assignments well time doesn't have a value to them okay so let
00:06:56.580 you i'll let you know my consequence if a student can't get an assignment in on time especially when
00:07:02.300 i make it super clear on day one what my assignments are when they're due what the
00:07:06.000 expectations are they can submit them early i've given them all options and it's still not submitted
00:07:10.800 on time, well then their consequence will be late marks. And when the late marks don't bother the
00:07:17.080 kid and they just leave it, then the consequence is another assignment. More work. Well, you're
00:07:24.000 going to have to do more work because you've decided you're not going to take this work
00:07:27.800 seriously. So I'm going to have to train you. I'm going to have to teach you the lesson of how to
00:07:35.040 value that, or else we're going to sit here together and I'm going to have to be in this
00:07:41.020 space while you do what you need to do. Do you want to try to avoid it? You're going to be here
00:07:46.440 longer. Do you want to try to negate it? If you want to try to lie and get your way around it,
00:07:51.680 it's going to go from one class after school to 10 classes after school. But we're all going to
00:07:57.120 sit here and do it as uncomfortable, as punishment as it is for me. We're all going to sit here and
00:08:03.620 do it together. If kids are acting a fool, the consequence should pertain to what they've done. 0.98
00:08:14.500 Right? Detention as just to sit around and stare at the wall and I'm just going to waste your time 0.99
00:08:21.100 to me has never been useful whatsoever. Suspension, not usually been useful whatsoever.
00:08:27.460 ever. There's certain expectations that that has been useful. What's useful is a lesson learned.
00:08:35.200 And if I can't teach them a lesson of how to be a productive, respectable, good person in this
00:08:42.320 school, if their parents and I cannot get together and figure out what kind of consequences and what
00:08:49.880 kind of issues that those kids are going to have to overcome and how they're going to overcome
00:08:55.900 them? If I'm not doing that, I'm not doing my job either. School is about learning. If you don't
00:09:05.320 want to learn, I'm going to create an environment in which you are then going to have to jump a
00:09:12.420 higher bar. If you can't learn, I'm going to break that bar down for you and we're going to do it in
00:09:19.660 pieces together, but you're not going to get to avoid to do the work. That's it, right?
00:09:27.400 Because there's really two types of kids. Well, there's a lot. But in this sense,
00:09:33.060 talking about consequence, the type of kid who just doesn't want it, for the most part,
00:09:38.200 just doesn't want to do it, doesn't think they have to do it, thinks they can get around it,
00:09:41.620 they don't really care about their marks. And then there's the kind of kid who can't do it,
00:09:44.920 who doesn't understand it, who maybe is afraid to ask, who maybe is embarrassed to talk about it,
00:09:50.220 who maybe doesn't have support networks at home in order to help facilitate.
00:09:55.720 Those are two different students with two different needed consequences. But both students,
00:10:00.100 I promise you, both students need educating just differently.
00:10:07.720 And in a lot of schools, that's not a thing. That's not our job. Our job isn't to teach them
00:10:14.380 time management. Our job isn't to teach them, you know, responsibility. Are you okay? Of course,
00:10:21.280 that's their job. Of course, that's our job. If I'm not doing that job, I don't know why I'd be
00:10:26.900 teaching. But again, you need to make the consequence and the action fit each other.
00:10:35.920 If a kid is harassing another student, well, guess what? Now we need to go into some deep
00:10:41.940 education and research about what it is to bully, why you bully, what kinds of things are lacking
00:10:49.740 in yourself, what kind of damage that can do to a person. Those conversations need to be had
00:10:54.840 and need to be had in a long format way. And they need to do the research to then come to it.
00:11:02.820 Kids don't, for the most part, kids aren't bad people. Kids aren't looking to be bad.
00:11:09.520 I don't think. I really don't think so. And I've been doing it for a long time. So I think I've
00:11:14.000 seen my fair share. I would say for the most part, kids do silly things. Kids lie to get out of 0.74
00:11:20.960 trouble. Kids avoid when they feel insecure. And kids joke when they feel like that's the only
00:11:28.320 currency they have with their friends. All of those things. That's the time in high school
00:11:36.680 to figure that out because we think that teens don't carry their insecurities but of course
00:11:44.980 they do guys look around at adults go ahead think about the adults at your workplace right now think
00:11:51.280 about the adults that lie that manipulate think about the adults that aren't competent think about
00:11:56.760 the adults that try to put put a show on for certain people think about the adults who take
00:12:03.040 credit for other people's work. It's all the same thing. There are adults who have never been held
00:12:10.880 accountable at any other stage because the educational system has failed. Their obviously
00:12:18.420 community or family environment has failed to teach them the necessary things that need to
00:12:24.500 be taught. And guess what happens then? Our society fails. You want to make education cheaper
00:12:31.160 and easier and faster, watch what happens. Because you might not pay for it today because
00:12:36.780 you're saving all those tax dollars, but boy, are you going to pay for it eventually.
00:12:43.240 Consequence is incredibly important, but you need follow through, which means you need time,
00:12:48.320 which you need resources. You need teachers that are empowered to be able to put in place
00:12:57.720 those consequences and, and have significant follow through coming from the teacher, the
00:13:07.980 administration, and their parents across the board. You have that united front. And those kids,
00:13:16.160 those students are going to grow up and they're going to understand the lessons. They are going
00:13:21.020 to respect the lessons. They are going to implore the lessons. They are going to become better
00:13:26.800 members of society for having learned it. It does get complicated and it gets complicated because
00:13:35.180 different people respond to different things. And I've said this to you before, I try really hard
00:13:42.480 as a, as a teacher has been around the block a couple of times to never throw down, to never
00:13:47.440 get into a conflict with a student in front of their peers. Cause I'm going to tell you right
00:13:53.020 No. Nine times out of 10. That is the hill they would lie on. They'll burn themselves to a cinder.
00:14:00.360 It doesn't matter. They will not lose face in front of their friends. That is the point of 0.92
00:14:04.980 adolescence. The point of adolescence is they cease to care about me. They cease to care about
00:14:08.980 their parents in a social way. Why? Well, they're trying to individuate. They're supposed to.
00:14:14.360 Good. You can individuate. You can be your own person, but you got to be a good person. You got
00:14:18.480 to be a responsible person. You got to pay your bills. You got to do your job. You got to be
00:14:22.880 responsible for yourself. Because if you're not, then you're not getting a paycheck.
00:14:28.500 And we have lost that. Also understand, I am not party to the 1990, you know, 1980 or 90
00:14:40.920 punishments of clean the bathrooms, of do push-ups, of do a wall sit, of write out lines.
00:14:48.460 What? What a lazy, lazy consequence. It doesn't need to be punitive. It needs to be corrective.
00:14:58.960 Nobody's slapping the dog on the nose anymore because eventually that dog bites. Apply the
00:15:03.480 same logic. And different kids are going to respond to different things. Some kids will
00:15:10.560 respond to a really lengthy discussion with their parents and with, you know, really tough. Some
00:15:16.320 kids won't, they'll shut down. Some kids respond to doing extra work. Some kids will respond. And
00:15:21.960 I think this is a great one. If a school can do it, volunteer work. I personally think that the
00:15:28.760 school should control and, and have connection to what volunteer hours in Ontario kids have to do
00:15:36.260 40 hours in their high school career. And I think we should be able to control what 40 hour, what
00:15:41.600 they do and where they do it. Because I think there's too much where it's like, oh, I worked
00:15:44.940 at my dad's accounting firm for a month. Stop it. Stop it. The point of volunteer hours, in my
00:15:51.800 opinion, is to give them empathy and perspective. That's the point. Empathy, perspective, connection
00:16:00.600 to the community, not connection to your aunt's, you know, clothing store. That's not what I'm
00:16:07.760 talking about here. And I think kids, I know, I know students would respond to it, appreciate it.
00:16:16.340 And, and the problem I think with the public board, a lot of the time too, is
00:16:20.260 they're kind of, they're always trying to come up with these objective rules,
00:16:26.400 these objective, you do ABC, this happens. And first of all, there's delusions of objectivity.
00:16:35.080 objectivity don't exist. Because every consequence, if I'm only applying one consequence to a whole
00:16:41.460 line of kids, but that consequence affects those kids in different ways, it is no longer this
00:16:45.660 objective test. It is actually quite subjective because it's impacting those kids in subjective
00:16:50.820 ways. And the more we try to deny that happens, the more we pretend like kids are cogs in the wheel
00:16:57.040 and applying the same format in the same box to each kid, expecting that they all respond and
00:17:02.920 react in the same way, the worse and worse and worse our system becomes. This illusion of
00:17:10.240 objectivity is ridiculous. We need to chuck that out the window altogether. We need to stop 0.90
00:17:15.600 pretending like anything is objective, like anything can be purposefully objective.
00:17:22.980 We need to do things across the board differently.
00:17:26.500 but make no mistake
00:17:30.500 there needs to be clear expectation
00:17:34.000 clear consequence, clear follow