School Discipline: A Socially Literate Solution

By Alfred S. Alschuler

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070011273
• ISBN13: 9780070011274
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Educators and Students in Collaboration to Solve Problems

University of Massachusetts education professor Alfred Alschuler tested a variety of "social literacy" techniques during eight years of research in middle and secondary schools across the country. The techniques derive from the beliefs of Paulo Freire, the famed Brazilian educator and philosopher.Says the author in the first chapter: "I am convinced that some of Freire's ideas lead to practices that embody our country's publicly stated ideals more fully than many current procedures in our nation's classrooms."Three convictions form the core of Freire's-and Alschuler's- beliefs about resolving discipline problems: (1) People can and should create "a world in which it is easier to love"; (2) people develop the ability to create their world; and (3) education that is based on problem-solving facilitates this development.When applied pragmatically to education in general and school discipline in particular, these three convictions lead ideally to a self-governing classroom structure rather than to a hierarchy of oppressive authority and power. The convictions represent an amalgam of current theories in social psychology, group dynamics, and organizational development and management.Alschuler's book presents an enormously intriguing look at the old problem of school discipline. The author argues persuasively in favor of democratic participation by students, teachers, and administrators in resolving disciplinary difficulties. In case history after case history, he demonstrates the practical value of collaborative efforts between students and educators in managing, reducing, or altogether eliminating classroom stress and conflict.In a well-paced and colloquial style that typically avoids polemics, the book includes specific vignettes from Alschuler's experiments in New England secondary schools- exceedingly successful experiments that called for identifying patterns of stress and conflict, analyzing their systematic causes, and ultimately modifying ineffective and cumbersome regulations.Explains Alschuler: "Literacy is more than simply learning to read and write the conventional idiom. It is a much broader problem solving process involving naming problems, analyzing the causes, and acting to solve these problems."The philosophy and techniques of social literacy were at the heart of the author's enormously rewarding experiments. When the schools changed rules and redefined roles in place of punishing or reforming individual students, discipline problems decreased sharply. Even more dramatic was the way in which this solution-oriented approach enabled teachers to improve control and motivation, to increase teaching time, and to reduce battle fatigue.The chapters containing how-to exercises-spiced with lively anecdotes many teachers will identify with-offer a guiding concept as well as immediately applicable measures for making the guiding concept work in the classroom. Those guiding concepts include resolving conflict through dialogue; raising teacher an