How to get children to behave the way you want them to. Many schools (and indeed many organizations) take the road of rules. They have many rules - do this, don't do this, and the consequences. With time, the rules and counter-rules grow. But there is always new behaviour or an incident which requires new rule.
Despite this escalating cycle of rules and super-rules, children don't seem to come under control. This leads to standard conclusions that - good-old days were different, now things have gone to dogs. Still more rules.
However, I think we are barking up the wrong tree. There are things which don't respond to rules, for example, Culture. Children behave according to the culture in which they find themselves. As that culture is lost, typical reaction of a school is to set-up rules to bring back the culture. This doesn't work, so there are more rules made, more control sought. That is why we find, most legacy systems, which are not working, are over-designed with rules. Too many rules, is a signature of barking-up the wrong tree.
I believe that one can never regain a culture by making rules. To develop a culture, we need to have campaigns, promote activities, praise heroes, have debates, invite volunteers. A lot of these activities slowly change the atmosphere and establish a culture. Note that, there is no rule-making here.
Think of it, all of us behave in a particular descent way in a restaurant or a temple - not because there are rules but because we know the culture. On the contrary, despite many rules, we don't hesitate to jump the signal or take a short-cut on scooter on the wrong side of the road. What culture can deliver, rules can not.
Of course, making rules is easy and gives a sense of short-term control over the situation. So most organizations take this short-cut. But bad-behaviour comes back in one form or other. On the other hand, promoting cultural activities is hard and has to be sustained over a long period to establish. But once a culture is established, children are embedded in it, they behave.
I often ask children (in a disguise) what would they like, rules or culture ? Invariably, no one likes rules, they all prefer to operate in appropriate culture. The catch is, one individual can't promote culture, organization has to step in.
So systems such as schools, should pay close attention to if they want to promote rules or promote culture. The two things take different roads.
Despite this escalating cycle of rules and super-rules, children don't seem to come under control. This leads to standard conclusions that - good-old days were different, now things have gone to dogs. Still more rules.
However, I think we are barking up the wrong tree. There are things which don't respond to rules, for example, Culture. Children behave according to the culture in which they find themselves. As that culture is lost, typical reaction of a school is to set-up rules to bring back the culture. This doesn't work, so there are more rules made, more control sought. That is why we find, most legacy systems, which are not working, are over-designed with rules. Too many rules, is a signature of barking-up the wrong tree.
I believe that one can never regain a culture by making rules. To develop a culture, we need to have campaigns, promote activities, praise heroes, have debates, invite volunteers. A lot of these activities slowly change the atmosphere and establish a culture. Note that, there is no rule-making here.
Think of it, all of us behave in a particular descent way in a restaurant or a temple - not because there are rules but because we know the culture. On the contrary, despite many rules, we don't hesitate to jump the signal or take a short-cut on scooter on the wrong side of the road. What culture can deliver, rules can not.
Of course, making rules is easy and gives a sense of short-term control over the situation. So most organizations take this short-cut. But bad-behaviour comes back in one form or other. On the other hand, promoting cultural activities is hard and has to be sustained over a long period to establish. But once a culture is established, children are embedded in it, they behave.
I often ask children (in a disguise) what would they like, rules or culture ? Invariably, no one likes rules, they all prefer to operate in appropriate culture. The catch is, one individual can't promote culture, organization has to step in.
So systems such as schools, should pay close attention to if they want to promote rules or promote culture. The two things take different roads.
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