Teenagers think they can make better decisions on their own behalf than they actually can.
This is why adults have to say things like things like, “It’s time to turn off the Nintendo and go to bed,” “Don’t eat that package of Ho Hos; you’ll spoil your dinner,” and, “Put the phone down and finish your homework.”
I’m not saying that teens unilaterally make poor choices. I’m simply observing that oftentimes what a student thinks is in his or her best interest at the time may not be.
For instance, if a teacher decides--in the name of giving students some autonomy--to allow her students to determine where they want to sit in class, a handful of students will consider legit factors, such as where they can best pay attention or where they can see the whiteboard without having to put on their dreaded glasses, while most will seize the opportunity to sit with their besties and put learning on the back burner. Inevitably, this leads to classroom management headaches for the teacher and decreased productivity for the students.
Thanks a lot, you’re thinking. Now you tell me, Craig, after I have spent 14 weeks trying to be the “cool” teacher while struggling with unruly students who sit wherever they please, feel entirely too comfortable, and are now running the place.
Sorry to be the late-breaking bearer of bad news. Don’t fret, though. There’s hope around the corner. In a little over a month, we will be beginning a new semester, and the new year is a great time for a natural readjustment of your practices and procedures.
I’ll let you in on a little secret I have learned after doing this education thing for a while: Young people secretly love structure.
In the same way that many dogs love crawling back into their kennels because confined spaces provide them comfort and security, students seek predictable routines and boundaries, even though they may try to push them at times.
I recently finished R.J. Palacio’s novel Wonder (a “wonder”ful, heart-wrenching read for middle grade children and adults, too) and cringed at the narrator’s description of the horrors of the school cafeteria.
Via had warned me about lunch in middle school, so I guess I should have known it would be hard. I just hadn't expected it to be this hard. Basically, all the kids from all the fifth-grade classes poured into the cafeteria at the same time, talking loudly and bumping into one another while they ran to different tables. One of the lunchroom teachers said something about no seat-saving allowed, but I didn't know what she meant and maybe no one else did, either, because just about everybody was saving seats for their friends. I tried to sit down at one table, but the kid in the next chair said, "Oh, sorry, but somebody else is sitting here."
He vividly describes his anxiety over finding a friend to sit with and his dread of facing the cruelty of the social pecking order. It’s a situation that reappears in books, movies, and on television, so it must be a universal adolescent terror.
A seating chart is just one way to take that stress out of a student’s day. Imagine being the kid who is trying to do the right thing and make a learning-conducive seat choice while being pressured to sit with his friends who would rather socialize. If the teacher makes that decision, there’s a scapegoat to blame. No one gets ostracized. Everyone has a place. And students learn to work and get along with with others they might not seek on their own.
The seating chart is just one component of a mid-year do-over. My general advice to teachers is to create a classroom environment that is “comfortably structured.” Harsh rigidity doesn’t promote learning. Efficiency does.
If you look around your classroom during these first few weeks of December and wonder how things reached this point of chaos in just three short months, take the opportunity to set some resolutions to rein your students in on the first day back in January. Establish some guidelines for running an efficient classroom. Clarify (or create) expectations. Concentrate on minimizing non-instructional class time. Plan carefully, and take that extra moment to make sure you’ve got everything in place before the day begins. Create routines for partner- and small-group work. Post and explain learning targets and goals for each day. Sure, it’s not as fun for kids as letting them be in charge, but I promise that, even though they may not say it, most of them will be grateful for it.
When you show up to class looking like you are in charge, your students will respond accordingly. Don’t be a tyrant. Just be a leader who knows what is going on, has a clear direction, and is acting in the best interests of those you are leading. That’s what everyone wants from a leader, right?
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