Post by Admin on Jan 8, 2014 22:02:54 GMT -6
I've been reading Diane Gossen's 2008 book on Restitution entitled "It's All About WE: Rethinking Discipline Using Restitution (Third Edition)." It's a great method for school-wide discipline, and helping students develop self-discipline. It helps students analyze their behavior using William Glasser's Control (now Choice) Theory, so they can understand the need they were trying to satisfy through their misbehavior, and reach toward the person they believe they would like to be based on an accepted set of beliefs the school has worked out with the kids. This would likely avoid the child getting stuck in the belief that they're a bad kid and developing a negative identity. Restitution avoids coercion by giving choices and turning mistakes into opportunities for growth (paying forward). I like the depth of reasoning Diane shows in her book. She carefully reflects on every aspect of discipline, taking nothing for granted. I like the five positions of control mentioned in chapter two (i.e., Punisher, Guilter, Buddy, Monitor, and Manager/Mentor). It helped me analyze what I had been doing at times, and gave me a new direction for how I could become a more thoughtful and effective disciplinarian. I also like the restitution triangle model because it's easy to remember (i.e., Step 1 - Stabilize the Identity; Step 2 - Validate the Need; & Step 3 - Seek the Belief/Person). In helping a student seek the belief, she includes seven kinds of reparations: 3 doing reparations - (1) apologize, (2) consequence yourself, or (3) fix it; and 4 being reparations - (4) collapse conflict with a win-win solution, (5) ask if you could have done worse, (6) find the "gift" in the misbehavior, or (7) use humor to help learn through laughter. I contrast this with the Collaborative Problem Solving model by Dr. Ross Greene, who tries to work toward win-win solutions with the students. That method is simpler and more portable (does not need a school to create belief systems), but it lacks the depth of the Restitution model. I also like the "weaving" aspect to Restitution, which supports the need for earlier behavioral methods of classroom control (switching between the Monitor and the Manager/Mentor). All in all, It's All About WE is a worthwhile read.