By Michael Peacy

The other night I was watching one of my favorite movies, “Major Payne.” The movie is about a hard-core military major discharged from the Marine Corps. After many failed attempts at civilian life, the Marines found him a new job as the leader of an ROTC program that is in complete disarray. The kids obviously have been through several teachers before Payne and are not very well behaved. The only true leader of the students is the worst example among them. We've all seen these groups and we've all seen the wrong student leaders in a shaky group.

The major's approach to deal with the kids was to treat them like they were men in basic training. He's exceedingly tough with them and calls them harsh names. He won't let a five-year-old boy go to the bathroom so the boy ends up wetting his pants. He is so tough and rigid that he never backs down. Major Payne's whole approach is negative reinforcement; bad behavior deserves bad punishment. From the first meeting, the stage is set for a battle between the major and the kids.

There are times in a classroom when this also feels like the most appropriate way to go. A student insists on shooting off his mouth and you are pulling your hair out. (That's how I got to my current state of hair growth.) The instinctive first reaction is to scold him or let him know what he did wrong. The next time, for the same behavior, you kick him out in the hallway. In the meantime, this one child, who takes up most of your classroom management energy, disrupts instructional time, stealing valuable class time and learning from a whole class of kids. When the child returns from wherever he's being punished, he's angry, you're angry, and he mouths off one more time. You explode, send him to the office and write him up yet again. Now you've spent at least 10 minutes of the day's class time on this situation. This happens over and over. This frustrating cycle is negative reinforcement.

By contrast, the school counselor, who eventually becomes the major's love interest, introduces the major to the idea of positive reinforcement and leading by example as a nurturing father figure with the kids. Of course, at first he's opposed to this idea, so when he does try to be positive and nurturing, it ends up rather comical because he just can't change who he is. In one attempt to be nurturing, he tells one of the boys the story of “The Little Engine That Could.” The story starts off normally, but the major ends up turning it into a gruesome version of the classic children's tale: the train is bombed, left alone surrounded by the enemy, and needs to shoot its way out.

Let's just say, the ‘nurture campaign' doesn't work since the major has set the stage as a harsh person so that when he tries to be nice, no one buys it. This is true in real life. Kids do respond to positive reinforcement, such as a reward for work well done, however, if you are mostly negative most of the time, the positives lose their effect. Positive rewards are an okay route on a short term basis but the positive effects of this approach run out when the candy runs out. A “good job” and a compliment really do go a long way.

When my students know I truly care that seems to work both for me and against me at times. Students do need to know what they are working for and do want you there to support them. In the movie, Major Payne's goal is to motivate the kids to win a trophy at the military games. He arranges a trip for them to see the trophy and this inspires the kids. That was the first part. The second part is when the tough-guy leader's dad shows up, drunk and abusive. Major Payne confronts the dad and sends him on his way. At that point, the students realize that although he is tough and unforgiving, he does care about them. From this point on, he has no more problems and they excel. The same is true in the classroom; kids want someone to care about them and sometimes teachers are the only adults who do.

Maybe I'm reading too much into a silly comedy. But it did make me think about the way I approach my own students. Getting to know the kids and supporting them really does have a positive effect. It hasn't worked every time in the short run, but it has been effective in the long run.

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Posted October 29, 2007