Modeling and Measuring Respect in a Primary School Here are notes from a conversation between a primary school teacher and P. Hein on the first day the teacher modeled, discussed and measured respect in her classroom. The students were ages 7-8. The teacher starts her description of the process by saying:
After that the teacher told the kids that later she would ask them how much they felt respected by her, and she would tell them how much she felt respected by them. They said "okay." So around 10 in the morning she stopped class to do the respect survey. She told them to hold up their fingers to show how much they felt respected by her. She said 10 fingers means the highest respect and two closed fists would equal zero. To her surprise all the children held up all ten fingers. When she asked why, they gave her specific reasons such as "You don't write our name on the blackboard like the other teachers do when we are talking." "You come and help us when we have questions." "You don't yell at us or say you will send us to the principal." "You helped so-and-so when he couldn't understand something." The she asked if they wanted to know how much she felt respected by them. They said "yes." She said about a six. They looked very disappointed and they asked why it was so low. She told them that sometimes people were talking when she was talking or when others were asking questions, etc. She said "Do you think you can raise your scores?" They gave her an enthusiastic "Yes!" Then she asked "Now how much do you feel respected by your classmates?" She got a wide variety of scores and asked the kids to explain their scores. They said things like "Well, so-and-so was pulling on my hair even when I asked him to stop it." After lunch, she took another survey. She still received all tens. The students still had a wide range of scores for each other, but generally the scores were higher. When she told them she now felt respected by them an 8, they looked proud of themselves, but they still were not satisfied. She asked if they thought they could raise it even higher, again she got a very enthusiastic "YES!" She said from that moment on till the end of the day she had one of the quietest, most well-behaved classes she has ever taught. She said the children were self-monitoring each other. If someone talked too loudly, the others would motion to them to be quiet. She never did another survey because there was no need to. The children could sense how well they were doing, and it was clear they had risen to the occasion. - More Detail These notes were taken from a phone conversation in 1997. The conversation was taped recorded with the teacher's permission so we could both learn from her first experience at testing some of S. P. Hein's ideas about using mutual respect as the basis for managing a classroom. The teacher was taking the place of the regular teacher, so it was her first day with these children. As far as we know, this is the first time students have ever been asked how much they felt respected by their teacher on a scale of 0-10. The results are extremely encouraging for those who believe it is both desirable and possible to teach in an atmosphere of mutual respect. |
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