Henry Clay Frick was the coke magnate who joined forces with Andrew Carnegie, the world’s largest steel maker in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Coke (the coal type) is necessary for the manufacture of steel. Frick was an early art collector, and his acreage in Pittsburgh now houses not only his mansion but a wonderful museum.

When he become more involved in finance, Frick built a second mansion in Manhattan (70th Street at 5th Avenue), just east of Central Park. The “Frick Collection,” in this majestic marble structure, shares some of the world’s most famous European paintings—including Rembrandt van Rijn’s most famous self-portrait. An audio-cassette is at your disposal to take you through some of the treasures of classical art.

J. Pierpont Morgan (Why use “John” when you have a name like “Pierpont”?) was Mr. Wall Street himself. His son built a duplicate mansion of his father’s which now houses the Morgan Library (36th and Madison). Whereas Frick collected masterpieces of European art, Morgan collected masterpieces of prose. His three Gutenburg Bibles give a sampling of why scholars of history find the collection so valuable. The only majestic, private collection I have seen to compare is John Adams’ collection in Quincy, Massachusetts.

(Pavlov was smart enough not to use a cat; cats, like humans, are too independent.)

Operant conditioning, in contrast to classical conditioning, is concerned with how an action may be controlled by a stimulus that comes AFTER it, rather than before it. When a reward follows a behavior, then that behavior is likely to be repeated. Today, we refer to this psychology as “behaviorism.”

Burros Frederic Skinner (1904-1990), the famed Harvard University psychologist,  became popular with this practice of behaviorism. Skinner preferred the term “reinforcement.” Skinnerians (behaviorists) are apt to argue that virtually everything—even who we are—can be explained in terms of the principal of reinforcement. The supposition is that all behavior is the result of external influences (that which is reinforced, e.g., reward the dog for doing what you want, and ignore behavior you do not want reinforced). Internal motivation of any kind is never considered.

Behaviorists speak about how “organisms” learn based upon the assumption that humans are animals—different from other animals only in the types of behaviors displayed. It is no wonder that, with this belief, Skinner conducted most of his experiments on rodents and pigeons and wrote most of his books about people.

Unfortunately, many educational policy makers are still espousing this approach by mandating Positive Behavior Intervention  and Support (PBIS or PBS for short).

More about external motivators and their ineffectiveness with people can be found at AboutDiscipline.com.

“The strategies that Dr. Marshall describes for developing humane, responsive, and responsible classrooms are grounded in research AND good practice. They link classroom management concerns to the more fundamental issues of how teachers can create powerful curriculum, teaching, learning, and lasting motivation. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to create a ‘right to learn’ in all classrooms.”
—Linda Darling-Hammond, Ed.D., Professor of Education,  Stanford University,
Author of THE RIGHT TO LEARN, and Director, National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future

The company has four broadcast locations: headquarters in Atlanta, political broadcasts from Washington, D.C., financial broadcasts from New York, and entertainment broadcasts, such as Larry King from Los Angeles.

I found the most interesting part of the CNN tour to be how the weather is projected and how the teleprompter is used.

The weather is projected on a blue screen. The camera does not pick up the particular shade of sky blue used. The same camera was used in the movie, “Superman.” When Superman appeared to be flying, he actually was lying on a blue board, simply  motioning as if he were flying. Viewers only saw Superman flying because the blue board was not picked up by the camera.

Using the same principal of “invisible blue,” the weather is projected in such a way that only selected objects are seen by viewers. Also, when the weather is reported, the reporter looks at the camera but motions broadly to an area—rather than pointing at a specific location. There is a television monitor at each end of the weather stage so the reporter can see where his or her hand is pointed.

Which brings up the most interesting part of the tour. I learned how news reporters are able to look right into the camera and read the news simultaneously. The reporter looks directly into the teleprompter where the eye of the camera is located and where the script is reflected right into the teleprompter in front of the red camera light. In this manner, all the scripts can easily be read—and EVERYTHING is read—except when a reporter is broadcasting from an “action” location.

At the CNN studio in Atlanta, visitors can see how the news is captured, selected, written, edited, rehearsed, and televised. The tour is  quite interesting, as is the CNN building itself. It is located in the heart of Atlanta across from Centennial Park and has a fountain commemorating the XXVI Olympiad. The 1996 Olympic Games hosted by the city has the fountain in the formation of the five Olympic rings with a large variety of programmed water spectaculars.

If you have an opportunity to visit Atlanta, plan to take the CNN tour.

Educational leaders have been and are still basing their decisions about learning on the use of such tests, and it is having disastrous results.

This is exemplified by third graders, especially conscientious ones, having anxiety attacks and by the surge of high school students giving up and just dropping out of school.

In the future, people will look back and ask, “How could we have been so foolish as to allow this to occur?” How could we justify using standardized tests (where half the test takers automatically fall below 50%) as an accountability instrument? How did we justify determining people’s successes or failures solely on taking “pencil and paper” tests? How did we support a system where success is based on checking facts—most of which inevitably are forgotten—rather than on factors which assess responsible citizenship and elements which are essential in living successful lives after formal schooling?

Yet, the federal governments “Race to the Top” has a critical component of judging a teacher’s success based upon students scores on such standardized tests. Perhaps I should consider adding this to the list of counterproductive approaches.

Business is competitive and competition improves performance in athletics, music competitions, and other activities where people are motivated to improve and win. However, competition between individuals is devastating for improving learning.

Government, business, and educational leaders have based their decisions about learning on this faulty reasoning, which already is having disastrous results as exemplified by young conscientious students having anxiety attacks and the surge of high school students giving up and just dropping out of school.

Competition improves performance but is devastating to those who are never in the winner’s circle.

Collaboration—not competition—improves learning.

People will look back twenty years from now (if not sooner) and ask, “How could we have been so foolish as to allow this to occur?”

Schooling today emphasizes “correct” answers and single solutions. But in so many situations, it is not how many correct answers one knows, but rather how one proceeds when one does NOT know—as when confronted with problems, dilemmas, enigmas, and situations to be addressed, the answers to which are not immediately known or readily available.

This is becoming truer every day in the rapidly changing information age. Students often attempt to solve a problem or analyze a situation without thinking. The answer may be so obvious that they just say it.

While there are many situations that can be dealt with successfully in this way, a problem arises when the task has become too complex; a “non-thinking” approach does not work in these situations.

For students who are habituated to thinking at the perceptual level, and who have not developed cognitive tools, such problems appear to be “too much” for them to deal with; they just give up.

The inability to take charge of one’s own cognitive processes is a very large part of the at-risk/dropout problem—as well as discipline problems.

Additional information on this topic is available at my article on metacognition.

RESPONSE:
Change is not difficult; it just feels difficult because it is different from what we are accustomed to doing.

Here’s proof. Fold your arms. Now fold them in the opposite manner. Feel funny? That’s because you are not accustomed to it.

We do things because it “feels right”—regardless of how unsatisfactory or unsuccessful it is. Anything new will feel a little funny or awkward. You need to practice it a minimum of seven times before the brain makes new neural connections so it ”feels right.”

Fold your arms in the manner in which you are not accustomed seven times in the next 24 hours.  You will see how much more comfortable it then feels.

When we realize that anything new—and that includes change-—feels awkward or funny at first, it becomes less difficult.

I viewed your website and agree totally with your ideas. However, in order for your ABCD model to work, would it not require compliance throughout the hierarchy?

RESPONSE:

I don’t think you would want people to comply to anarchy (Level A) or bossing others (Level B). Also, you can only operate on one level at a time—although we operate at different levels at different times.

Complying to directions is natural and acceptable (Level C). Parents teach youngster to say, “Thank you,” other cultural amenities, and manners. These are not “intrinsic.” They need to be taught and learned. This is the prime reason why I refer to “internal” motivation, rather than “intrinsic” motivation.

All young people are on level C as they learn and mimic appropriate behavior. At a certain developmental state, the youngster will for example say, “Thank you” because it is the proper way to respond (Level D), and the parent will no longer have to tell or ask the child to say, ”Thank you” (Level C).

How do you encourage kids to do homework?

I feel like I’m constantly chasing after students to do it. I find that it’s a reflection of my teaching that they’re not putting effort into it.

RESPONSE:

In order to differentiate between EFFORT in EMPLOYMENT and EFFORT in LEARNING, I avoid the use of the word, “work.” Rather than referring to home WORK, I refer to “home assignments.”

The only reflection on your teaching should be to ask yourself whether or not the assignments are relevant, meaningful, and/or useful.

Following are some suggestions:

1. Give choices – Give more than one option for the assignments and have students choose their preference.

2. Explain that there is not enough time to cover everything in class. Also, as it takes practice to learn any skill it also takes practice to reinforce learning. Inform students that the brain retains little unless there is reinforcement, much the same way that a person improves skills only with practice. Emphasize that home assignments are given to help the students become more successful—that the assingments are in their best interests, not yours.

3. Have a classroom meeting. Put on the table that the class is a learning community and everyone needs to participate in order for the class to be successful. Ask the students to suggest ideas of how to help students who are not helping themselves.

4. Many of these students have little encouragement and little structure at home. Help students establish procedures for doing assignments, e.g., regular time and place each day.

5. Relationships can be critical. Empower by positive comments, such as, “I know what you are cable of doing.” Some students need to believe in someone else’s belief in them before their belief in themselves kicks in. In such situations aiming at level C is fine, e.g., “Don’t disappoint me. I’m looking forward to seeing what you have done.”

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FROM A POST at the mailring:

After fuming last night and deciding I would throw extra homework at them and demand it back the next day and if not, they’d be in at play time, I took many deep breaths and took a different approach.

I started math class with a fun, interactive group activity. Then, I brought us all together and asked why we have homework. The kids generated a great list—about exercising our brains, reviewing what they’ve learned, becoming more independent to do work without the teacher’s help, and to challenge themselves. I was really impressed!

Then, I put a copy of some exceptional homework, completed by one of the kids in the class, on the overhead projector. I asked the class what they noticed about it and we talked about how this one pupil went above and beyond–how neat it was and so clearly labelled, how he showed his work and explained his answers. Then, instead of giving them extra homework, I gave them  a homework assignment to complete right there in class in their HW books. That gave me a chance to walk around and encourage them and make suggestions about using rulers, labels, etc. We ended the lesson with all of them having a model for what an exceptional piece of work should look like for homework. They have now hopefully internalized exactly what I expect of them. I must say, I NEVER would have taken this positive approach prior to the Discipline Without Stress approach, so thank you to all of you for your constant thoughts and ideas.

Year 6 (grade 5) teacher, UK

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FROM A PERSONAL COMMUNICATION

I have a student who doesn’t do his homework and who struggles in the class. Last year he would have had several detentions from me and a failing grade. I would have forced him to come in to do his homework and we would have been in a power struggle.

This year I purchased several school supplies for him and have always had a kind word for him. I recently found out he is actually homeless and that he and his dad are living in a cheap motel. Recently he has started spending his break time in my class, by his own choosing, doing his math homework. He also drew me some pictures on binder paper that he wanted me to have. It breaks my heart to think of all the opportunities I have missed for this type of relationship with students.