the vast majority of behavior problems in the classroom involve minor breaches of discipline these incidents frequently originate in the classroom situation itself and are within the control of the teacher disciplinary problems in the classroom are symptoms of underlying weaknesses in total learning mr grimes mathematics teacher is displeased with the progress of his ninth grade class in mathematics you see what low grade you made on your weekly mathematics test more than half of you failed most of those who passed just got by nobody got one hundred percent this is the poorest class i've had in a long long time most of you have no foundation at all other troubles with your attitude you don't pay enough attention in class you don't do enough work outside of it you don't know what the word study mean you haven't the slightest idea and you realize that mathematics is an important subject i tell you right now that unless you get over your lazy idea what kind of behavior do you call it a minute you say where you are this is the kind of behavior i might have expected of you all i do is leave the room for a few minutes and what i find confusion this autumn and what are you doing all right since you think it's so funny the whole class can stay in for forty five minutes this afternoon then you'll see how funny it is then on the whole class to report back here at five o'clock three detention leave this room and don't come back until you're ready to apologize to me well this is going to get us nowhere maybe we'd better go back to see if we can find some of the causes of this undesirable learning situation just what was mr grimes purpose in making such statements as these this is the poorest class i've had in a long long time this is hardly the way to win friends or influence people you don't know what the word study means you haven't the slightest idea might not be a bad idea to show him how i tell you right now that unless you get over your lazy habits and come up to the standards i've set for this class many of you will have the pleasure of repeating this course next semester what kind of motivation is there what is it lee the trouble is you don't know what the word study means you haven't the slightest idea or reaction is the answer it was the result of mr grimes provocative remarks now take this the good thing i caught you i'll make an example out of you oh come now mr grimes by taking it out on the boy aren't you covering up a symptom of your own deficiency in that yes who did some boy probably but the chances are it summarizes the feelings of the group there was an unwritten code covering such situations why try to  all right since you think it's so funny the whole class can stay in for forty five minutes after no mass punishment is a dangerous weapon and doesn't work too well  three detention leave this room and don't come back until you're ready to apologize to me it's a long way to the end of the term when will this and that's what should have developed into a sequence of and valuable learning experiences at the to rewrite it into a series of disagreeable and injurious personal tensions this is all wrong need any of these incidents have occurred at all suppose mr grimes had tried another approach most of you are disappointed in the low grades you made on this test so my now we all of you had trouble with that last problem on racial and perhaps i didn't do a good job explaining ratio ratio is commonly as an everyday life mother uses it in the kitchen when she takes a recipe for a big cake and uses proportional amount of ingredients to make a little cake viceversa  blueprint as you know blueprints merely a scale drawing of something that usually large or small i had a blueprint of a bridge that's going to be a hundred feet wide but on this drawing the bridge is only ten inches wide and answer was three that's where you fell into a trap what you forgot was that before you can divide you have to reduce all units of measurement to the same unit and let the unit here that's right that gives us thirteen and a half feet and now we can divide thirteen and a half feet by one and a half feet right answer is nine well i see where i'm a minor stake and i want you to look over your papers very carefully and see where your major mistakes are going down the aisles are there any questions don't hesitate to you i have to leave for a few moments and age fifteen of your books the first three problems are exactly like number one on the test go to do as many as you can and i get back i get the idea now i sure messed up my test thanks i'm glad he's going over these questions i'd never make head or tail out of them otherwise you know i'm beginning to get some sense out of this i hope i do better next time i hate to bring o classroom control and learning efficiency are products of good teaching learning must be made meaningful interest in work for which learners see a purpose provides its own discipline but in spite of interest and meaning it must be remembered that some incidents will occur skill in handling such occurrence as prevents their growth into problems a friendly attitude with a sprinkling of humor goes a long way toward winning the regard and cooperation of the clients for respect is a more desirable molder of behavior than fear the develop