Rethinking Classroom Discipline

Conversations about classroom discipline typically focus on ways to teach kids there are consequences to their actions as a means of controlling future behavior. But a new approach gaining ground removes the sliding scale of punishment from the equation.

Clinical psychologist Ross Greene — whose books are well known to parents of so-called “problem kids,” is rewriting the rules for how some schools respond to challenging students.

In an in-depth piece for Mother Jones magazine, Katherine Reynolds Lewis takes a closer look at Greene’s methodology, and the remarkable results it’s producing. She spoke with EWA public editor Emily Richmond about what she saw in the schools she visited, the hurdles that might keep more schools from signing on to Greene’s approach, and also shared some useful tips for narrative journalism.