Constructive Classroom Management

Teachers in schools today are challenged on many levels as they try to organize and maintain an orderly, harmonious, and stimulating learning environment. Environmental challenges include interruptions from the loudspeaker, student messengers with a myriad of requests, and children leaving and returning from special programs. More troubling challenges stem from the need to help children cope with emotionally difficult situations: alcohol and drug abuse, physical and sexual abuse, separation and divorce of parents, moving, pregnancy, and stress at home such as unemployment. Teachers also face challenges when working with colleagues who don't carry through with their responsibilities, colleagues who are abrasive or indifferent to others and colleagues who hold different opinions about professional issues. In addition, challenges come from the many different roles in which teachers must function: member of the child study team, contributor to the school improvement team, coach for an athletic team, advocate for a child in need, and counselor to parents under stress. To complicate matters further, there are few clear cut or "right" ways of addressing these challenges. Like many other fields, education is undergoing some radical changes in philosophy about teaching, learning, and administering schools. Teachers are faced with important and complicated decisions with conflicting and confusing guidelines about how to respond. Eitzen (1992) believes we are in the midst of "one of the most profound transformations in history, similar in magnitude and consequence to the Industrial Revolution" (p. 586). He said that "several powerful forces are converging to transform the U.S. economy by redesigning and redistributing jobs, exacerbating inequalities, reorganizing cities and regions, and profoundly affecting families and individuals" (p. 586). Based on the assumption that families and individuals are shaped in fundamental ways by their economic situation, he predicts the changing economic picture is certain to have an adverse impact on many families, which in turn will have an impact on our schools.