Solving Classroom Discipline Problems
Your Instructor: James Thompson
Lesson 01
Chapter 3

Why Children Do What They Do

We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.

    —Gary Collins

One of my qualifications for teaching this course is that I am the parent of five children. I have survived five attacks of the terrible twos, five onslaughts of the frightening fours, numerous adolescent aberrations and four encounters with the ultimate challenge—the teenage years. (As I write this, I am working through my fifth episode of teenage trials.)

Early in my parenting years, I often wondered why my children ignored my sage advice and chose the most irritating, irresponsible behaviors. At one point, I came to the conclusion that they were doing this just to drive me crazy. I soon dismissed this thought as I saw my fellow parents suffering through the same discipline problems and the same frustration. Of course, all children could be part of a worldwide conspiracy to drive all parents to the funny farm, but I doubt that this is the case.

Understanding why children choose certain behaviors is critical to helping them learn to be responsible. Responsibility is all about choice. It is about helping children learn to make appropriate choices.

Here is another important fact. The answer to effective discipline is not motivating children. All children, all human beings, are already internally motivated to make the choices that they do.

To understand this internal motivation, I rely on the work of world-acclaimed psychiatrist and educational expert, Dr. William Glasser. Dr. Glasser's choice theory explanation of human behavior holds that all human behavior is directed toward fulfilling internal needs that are genetically implanted in all human beings.

These five basic needs are: the physical need for survival; and the psychological needs for love and belonging, freedom, power, and fun. (For further study, I suggest Dr. Glasser's book, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom). Basically, Dr. Glasser says that all choices our children and we make are motivated by our internal desire to fulfill one or more of our basic needs.

Not everyone agrees with Dr. Glasser's theory of internal motivation. Some people believe that all human behavior comes in response to external stimuli. (For further study, see the works of B.F. Skinner.) Choice theory recognizes that we receive information from the outside world, but we then use this information in making choices. Our behavior may be influenced by external forces, but our behavior and our choices are not determined by external stimuli or forces.

To illustrate the difference between internal and external motivation, Dr. Glasser uses the example of a telephone. When the phone rings, you answer it.

The external control advocate would say that you answered the phone because you were conditioned to do so. The external stimulus of the ringing phone caused you to pick up the receiver and answer. You were conditioned to pick up the phone when it rang.

Dr. Glasser would say that you chose to answer the phone. You answered to meet one of your internal needs. For instance, you answered the phone not because it rang, but because you wanted to find out who was calling you or because you wanted to talk with someone. You wanted to fulfill your need for friendship and connecting with others (the need for love and belonging).

Dr. Glasser states that you are not conditioned to answer the phone because you might choose not to answer it for a variety of reasons. Maybe you are enjoying watching television or reading a book. In this case, your need to have fun reading or watching television was stronger than your need for friendship.

I believe in Dr. Glasser's internal motivation because it makes more sense to me. I do not believe that my behavior can be controlled by anyone or anything outside of myself. I believe I choose the actions I take. And, therefore, I feel that I am responsible for those actions.

As far as responsibility is concerned, look at what these two theories of behavior are telling you. The internal control theory tells you that you are in control of your own behavior, that you are responsible for your own actions, and to a great extent you are the master of your own destiny.

On the other hand, external control theory tells you that your behavior is controlled by people and things around you. External control means that, whether you like it or not, you can be conditioned to behave in a certain way, and you are at the mercy of your environment.

I firmly believe that Dr. Glasser's theory is the correct one. My personal experience and the research that I and others have done confirms my belief.

Now, let's apply these two views of behavior to discipline.

If you believe that internal motivation directs behavior, then you can see why punishment (an external force) is not effective in influencing children's behavior. Of course, if the rewards are big enough or the punishments are scary enough, behavior can be affected for a short period of time but with no lasting results.

Dr. Glasser states that the only thing that children learn from punishment is that they have paid for their misdeed and they are then free to go out and do it again.

If punishment were an effective form of behavior management, we would have stopped having discipline problems in schools centuries ago. If punishment were an effective deterrent, our prisons would not be bulging at the seams.

If you believe in Dr. Glasser's approach, punishment will have no positive, lasting effect on children. However, if you use it long enough, it will certainly have some significant negative effects. Constant punishment will irritate and upset your students, make them fearful of you and teach them that an important part of life is to avoid being caught and punished. Punishment does nothing to teach children about appropriate, responsible behavior.

Once you understand that all human behavior is motivated by a desire to fulfill one or more basic needs, you can see the fallacy in the statement, "I need to learn how to motivate my students." You don't have to learn how to motivate students. They are already internally motivated. They just may not be motivated to do what you need them to do.

Before we can think about teaching children about responsibility, we must fully understand their basic needs. That is the subject of the next chapter.