The author knows from teaching young children herself how challenging it can be to face an endless parade of students reporting things to teachers as they're trying to teach. Figuring out how to deal with tattling takes time and energy and, as a result, teachers are often tempted to tell children to keep problems to themselves. Indeed, some…

Just about everyone agrees that cheating is bad and that steps need to be taken to prevent it. In this article, the author reconsiders what the term actually signifies and examines what leads students to do what they're not supposed to--and what that tells about their schooling. A fair amount of research has accumulated to illuminate the…

In an era where some parents seem unwilling or unable to draw the "clothes" line with their children, where pop culture influences kids' clothing choices as never before, and school safety--including gang violence--is at the top of everyone's minds, school uniforms and dress codes can play a significant role. What that role should be,…

Significant numbers of students are being pushed out of school as a result of "zero tolerance" school discipline policies. While nobody questions the need to keep schools safe, teachers, students, and parents are questioning the methods being used in pursuit of that goal. Zero tolerance policies were initially aimed at making schools safe. The…

A school day includes addressing student discipline. Regardless of the safeguards or policies that are in place in the school and regardless of whether they are sanctioned by the school board or whether they are stated in the student handbook, students push limits. Failure to address discipline issues will weaken every aspect of the school's…

When do interactions on campus involving strong words or questionable conduct reach the point of incivility? What is the line between legitimate freedom of speech and lively debate versus that which causes classroom disruption? What constitutes unacceptable behavior? Although there might not be universal agreement on what standard to use to define…

Name-calling is a pervasive practice, particularly in middle schools. According to students, parents, teachers, counselors, and other school staff who see its effects, it doesn't just go away. Instead, rampant name-calling can create a climate where children become disheartened, lose self-confidence, and dread coming to school. Efforts to…

In reality, gender bias is very much an issue for both boys and girls. However, it is difficult to detect because it affects girls and boys in different ways. In school, it is the boys who may be expected to "act out" and rebel at school work, while the girls are expected to be docile, conforming, and willing to work hard. In this article, the…

In this article, the author, who is a school principal, discusses her strategies of implementing schoolwide discipline process. Seeking a solution, she attended a two-day workshop on schoolwide discipline. In the two-day workshop, she and her staff learned to institute a more effective approach throughout the entire school, an approach that is…

In this article, the author discusses the impact of name-calling towards the student's academic performance and emotions and cites some measures on how should teachers address this problem in order to facilitate effective learning among students. Psychologists recognize that name-calling and other forms of verbal bullying and harassment are more…

Educators have not been teaching to the learning style of boys, nor have they kept up with recent findings in brain research on the developmental differences between boys and girls. With all the education reform efforts about, with new accountability standards so high, school districts nationwide struggle to balance budgets and increase student…

The Internet has had a profound effect on education and social interaction patterns. Educators struggle to stay abreast of technological advances and navigate the maze of positive and negative aspects of students using the Internet. A new use for the Internet is the relatively recent phenomenon called blogging. Blogging is a widely used means of…

This article focuses on the three kinds of school safety: (1) physical; (2) emotional; and (3) intellectual, and details how to determine if a school is safe. Excellence in schools demands that schools be physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe for students, while "good enough" schools are simply physically safe. Here, the…