Discipline with Dignity

Book excerpt: Discipline with Dignity details an affirming approach to managing the classroom that promotes respect for self and others. This completely updated 3rd edition offers practical solutions that emphasize relationship building, curriculum relevance, and academic success. The emphasis is on preventing problems by helping students to understand each other, work well together, and develop responsibility for their own actions, but the authors also include intervention strategies for handling common and severe problems in dignified ways. Filled with real-life examples and authentic teacher-student dialogues, Discipline with Dignity is a comprehensive and flexible system of prevention and intervention tools that shows how educators at all levels can *Be fair without necessarily treating every student the same way. *Customize the classroom to reflect today's highly diverse and inclusive student population. *Seek students' help in creating values-based rules and appropriate consequences. *Use humor appropriately and effectively to respond to abusive language. *Fine-tune strategies to resolve issues with chronically misbehaving students and "ringleaders" or bullies. This book is not simply a compendium of strategies for dealing with bad behavior. It is a guide to helping students see themselves in a different way, to changing the way they interact with the world. The strategies innate to this approach help students make informed choices to behave well. When they do, they become more attuned to learning and to understanding how to use what they learn to improve their lives and the lives of others--with dignity.