Former Principal Says Schools Need To Get Out Of The ‘Behavior Business’ And Focus Only On Education
Schools need to put the focus back on educating the students.
Prostock-studio / Shutterstock A former professor and education expert named Justin Baeder has admitted that schools need to start rethinking how they choose to approach students with behavioral issues because it's harming the overall learning environment.
In a TikTok video, Baeder claimed that teachers are not equipped to be anything more than educators for their students and shouldn't be responsible for correcting behaviors that only end up disrupting the classroom flow.
Baeder said schools need to get out of the 'behavior business' and focus only on education.
"Schools need to think seriously about getting out of the behavior business entirely because honestly, a lot of what schools are doing to try to improve student behavior is really behavior theatre," Baeder remarked.
He observed that a lot of the protocols that schools have in place to handle unruly students — or even violent students — don't improve their behavior and fail to create a helpful solution. He noted that it's the same with professional psychologists and therapists, as well. When parents seek professional help it works better than when students do.
The idea that a school can implement "amateur therapy" and stage different behavior interventions that will work is often naive and unproven. It's just school administrators hoping that by making it seem as if they're doing something, they can avoid potentially being sued or hoping that it will ease their conscience because they've tried to fix the problem.
"There's just not a lot of evidence that it actually works and one kind of bizarre manifestation of this is if you look at schools that have hired a bunch of new staff to deal with behavior," Baeder continued. From behavior specialists, behavior therapists, and BCBAs (Board Certified Behavior Analysts), schools that hire these professionals often aren't doing well when it comes to education and how well students are performing in classes and on standardized tests.
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Baeder claimed that hiring all of these additional staff members doesn't quite make the positive difference that school administrators hope it will. The actual issue is that not only have policies continued to change where there are no consequences for a student's behavior but students are also being placed inappropriately when they should be in more specialized programs.
Because of that, these students' needs are not being met and they are not succeeding in class. All of these problems are happening simultaneously but school admins are focusing more on fixing the behavior aspect instead of addressing the underlying problems.
"The way we can address behaviors in school is to have rules."
Baeder insisted that the only way teachers and other school admins can figure out if a student's behavior is improving is by making sure that rules are implemented and students are following them.
"When we try to throw out the rules and say, 'Well, let's give it a chance for these behavior interventions to work,' if those behavior interventions are just theatrics that we hope will work but we actually don't really have any evidence, like if they're just things we're doing to make ourselves feel better or look better, things are going to fall apart."
Baeder confidently asserted that the only way schools will see behavior improvements is by going back to the traditional rules and using them to hold the other things that they're doing accountable. Rules aren't just for holding certain students accountable but for holding processes accountable as well.
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If a school is bragging about doing all these wonderful things for a student, including hiring behavioral specialists, but that student is still violating and breaking traditional rules, then that student isn't actually being helped and nothing is improving either. Nothing can work if a student is not able to be at school safely without harming others and disrupting the natural flow of a classroom's learning environment.
Baeder's observation about students' behaviors in schools is similar to a music teacher named Teresa Kaye Newman, who explained in a TikTok video on her own page that she's noticed how much children are starting to "run the schools."
Newman insisted that children are being taught at home that rules don't matter and then taking that behavior to the classroom.
"We are consistently catering to the lowest common denominator. Kids may be young but they are not stupid and they absolutely know that they can get away with doing whatever they wanna do," Newman said. "All they have to do is call mama and daddy and [they will] come up to that school and scare admin so badly that they will do whatever they say."
She observed that children are being taught by their parents that a teacher has no idea what's good for them, and if that teacher is not showing respect to them first, then they don't have to follow the rules implemented in that classroom. Teachers and school admin are often afraid to uphold standard school rules because parents are scared of their children being upset and are willing to do anything to avoid confrontations.
The issue starts at home, Newman noticed, and as much as teachers and school admins can try their hardest to enforce rules that students should be following and obeying, at the end of the day, parents need to do some of that work at home. It comes from teaching their children to respect classroom orders and the teachers who are implementing them.
You can't expect teachers, who are already quitting public education in droves, to bend over backward and make sure that their students are respecting and supporting classroom boundaries when, at home, they are being taught to do the opposite.
Children shouldn't be afraid of discipline because it's essential in learning environments.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.