(Continued)
He can see that any praise he gets really *has* been earned: it isn't simply well-intentioned ego-boosting.

So, although it can be (as I know) pretty uplifting to see one's concerted praising starting to yield positive responses from kids who are usually a real challenge, it might not really be anything more than a quick fix.

Paul H., Cardiff, Wales

Again, more politically correct nonsense from New Labour who have ruinbed British education along with the integrity of the Armed Froces. I left teaching 30 years ago, all my contemporaries have retired, and appalled at what Blair has done to the UK

Tony Williams, Carbondale, USA

My sister was a London* teacher . Asked by the Head to choose two pupils to represent one of her school at an event, she chose the two worst behaved girls. After this they were on their best behaviour. Psychology can work in some cases. It was clear that these girls had never in their lives had a word of praise. Violence breeds violence** and the cane, birch, cat o'nine tails will not stop it.
* As Head of the boys department of one of London's toughest schools, (she had to have a degree in criminology to get the job) , she stepped in to stop a fight between Jamaican and Pakistani boys. They broke all her fingers and she was off work for two y ears.
** Scottish newspapers regularly reported parents beating their The kids grew up and beat their kids.
*** I met the last man to be given the Cat in England. He said it had stopped him using violence, but I also knew the son of a man who had had the Cat for beating up young police officers, and he liked to do the same...

peter kinsley , London, England

"There is a quicker and cheaper way to discipline unruly lads - put the cane across their backside. Can work wonders!"

How about we all start wearing animal skins and wielding clubs?
I went to a primary school where the teachers regularly hit the children. The result was a bunch of horrible, violent kids. Thank goodness I then went to a school where the teachers taught the kids respect, without hitting them over the head to do so.

Anyway, of course these kids should be punished. But as they are often unruly to attract attention, the punishment should not take place in front of other kids, and should not be "interesting", so the kid has nothing to boast about. I bet cleaning the toilets for a week would work much better than "Ha! I got caned 3 times this week! Look at them welts! I'm so hard!".

starling, Lancaster,

There is nothing 'new' about these guidelines at all. Training courses for teachers (and self help books for new parents, too!) have been telling us to 'set limits' but with a light and understanding touch for years. The problem is that too many of us find the techniques difficult, or don't know what they are even. There is an art to managing people, children and adults, and too few in authority (which SHOULD be the position of a teacher in front of his/her class) have mastered it. In the old days this didn't matter because 'respect' came automatically. Now it does matter because respect has to be earned.

Isabel, London,

While they were sitting in their front room on Sunday night, a young couple I know had their front door smashed in by a gang of armed robbers demanding their car keys. At a rough average age of 20 years each, this would make them 10/11 years old when Labour came to power. I do wonder what sort of schooling and discipline (if any) was ever imposed on these people. This is the real legacy of the Labour government. Please do the right thing and get rid of them at the next election. Otherwise me and quite a few other intelligent hard working people who contribute a lot to this economy both financially and otherwise will be emigrating for good.

Oliver , Manchester,

Another reason to add to my list of "why I'll be voting conservative instead of labour" in the next general election.

Jonny, London, England

Why do you suddenly have to have been a teacher to have had an opinion? I'd take a guess and say that pretty much everyone who's posted on here was a pupil for many years, sometimes behaving well, and sometimes badly. I'm sure they are well aware of how different kinds of responses from teachers affected them, so to suggest that they are not qualified to comment on classroom discipline is ridiculous.

Damon De Ionno, London, UK

What a wonderful collection of letters! Once again, if one needed proof, .the Government is out of touch with the electorate. It happens here. The question is what can we ( the peeps), do about it.? We in Texas have already elected some Representatives who are more aligned to our way of thinking. The rest are on notice, and we will be eliminating some of them. Get involved, they cannot stand the heat.! Call, write, e-mail, get a group together, The internet is good for this. We are supposed to be the masters!! Revolutionary, yes. Necessary, double yes. Scare the he.. out of them. They serve at OUR pleasure!!

Desmond Taylor, Houston, USA Texas

I don't think anyone's saying 'ignore the bad - just reward the good' outright - I'm not sure that that will work. But I do think that its easy to underestimate how challenging working with kids is.
I would, however, be interested to know that of all the people who've posted unconstructive, snide, or frankly brutal remarks, how many are teachers. Not many, I'm sure - I'm also fairly sure that none will have the bottle to answer this post.

Mat Sumner, Mulhouse, France

This is just the sort of drivel that has dragged this country down into the gutter.

I'm just so glad that I got out of teaching 20 years ago. Even then, we had untrained idiots from councils telling us to do this kind of thing, and look at the results.

I'm grateful that educating the ineducable is now someone else's problem. When all teachers vote with their feet as I did, maybe someone might just take notice.

Dave , Notts, UK

This is racial discrimination in it's purest form! Treating certain races or cultures differently just because they are from a different race or culture is pretty much how the dictionary would define the term. How about expecting different races, religions and cultures to conform and adapt to the British way, that is what should be happening. No grey areas. No other country in the world would allow different rules for different ethnicity. One newspaper reported that the report said that seikhs should be allowed to wear their ceremonial knives as part of their uniform and gypsies should be allowed to wear large hooped earrings! What happened to the ban on knife carrying? Does it not apply if it is part of your culture. This government have made us the laughing stock of the world and we are pitied by others. I am so depressed now. We are all doomed. These kids are our future and God help us all!

Victoria Cheston, London (unfortunately), England

I am an ex-English teacher and I know what I'm talking about. This arrant nonsense about praising kids who display "challenging" behaviour is as old as the hills. It's all been said before and saying it again does not make it any more relevant or valid. It's just crap. Belt unruly kids. Controlled violence works.

Angus McFarlane, Bucharest, Romania

What kind of message does this send to the well behaved pupils who are trying to learn in an environment run by a few disruptive louts, who then get rewarded and praised for their behaviour.
I agree with many of the comments regarding the actual teaching experience of the people concocting this rubbish!

Mark, Hayes, uk

I believe the instruction was to increase the praise, not to end sanctions, as your article implies. I'm certainly aware that praising even the most marginal improvements in behaviour and achievement has a positive effect. Although little used as a deliberate strategy it certainly helped me and the children. I've taught in mainstream and in a school for children (7 - 17) with behavioural problems, so I feel I know what i'm talking about. Having said that, I would no more go back into teaching than cut off my own head, but that's more to do with the relentless paperwork than anything else.

Louis Byrne, london, UK

another half baked idea. They should perhaps advise parents to teach their children good maner, good citizenship and respect for authority. I hope those myopic morons who came up with these ideas are listening to al the above comments!

Al Tock, london, UK

The lunatics are definitely running the asylum. Common sense tells us that rewarding bad behaviour will reinforce that it is acceptable to behave in this way and disruptive behaviour by some pupils means that the rest have their learning disrupted. This could be why 20% of children leave school lacking the most basic literacy and numeracy skills. The solution surely is to empower teachers to take whatever action they fell is appropriate to deal with bad behaviour without fear of suspension or litigation in order that they can devote their time to teaching rather than acting as ringmaster in a circus.
Does noone consider the feelings and yes, rights, of well behaved, non diruptive children to have a good education, unhampered by interruptions from attention seekers, thugs and bullies?

carole chapman, corridonia, italy

This is another load of garbage from a set of politically correct junkies.

SRB, Abergele, UK

Yes let's pat the little morons on the head and give them sweeties so that all the other kids see that bad behaviour gains rewards. When was the last time any of these idiots were in a school? Not recently that's for sure. Positive reinforcement is already a policy in schools and in a lot of cases......guess what?.....Yes....... it doesn't work.

judy, Liverpool, england

Looks like Messrs Blair and Johnson assume that classroom thugs are likely future Labour voters, and want to pander to them! Reward the thugs, and punish their victims- that's always the Labour way.

Doug, Glasgow,

Does "the government" really think it knows so much better than professionals doing the job every day that they need its (very superficial) advice? My advice would be to leave teachers (and doctors and other professionals) alone to do their job and try to find something that needs governing

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England

Put whoever came up with this idea in front of a class of 30 15 year olds in an inner city for a week and let's see what their policy is then.

judy, Liverpool, england

The fact that the government can produce this 'guidance' demonstrates that they have zero understanding of basic psychology. It appears they have never heard of classical conditioning, or even 'learning by association'. Surely these are the fundamental principles of learning? With flawed thinking like this, it's not difficult to see why our education system utterly fails those who do not have the benefit of a supportive and educational home life. This country is crying out for someone who will put the common sense back into politics and state provided services.

Damon De Ionno, London, UK

Who actually comes up with this rubbish? What experience do they have? Do they have any understanding of how naughty pupils really think and behave? This tosh from the Dfes is designed to support the bankrupt policy of inclusion in schools which has proved to be so dismally flawed and so damaging. As a teacher, I will never praise the disruptive behaviour of the minority of pupils who attempt to destroy the education of the majority who want to learn. Instead, I will always deal with disruption and bad behaviour head-on and that's just common sense!

Mark Nichols, Harrogate,

It's complete and utter madness to praise and reward kids who spend 90% of their time causing problems for the rest of the class, just because for 10% of the time they behave well.

Surely the rest of the class is going to think 'right, so if I throw a brick through the window, then say I'm sorry, I get a reward', rather than 'I better not throw a brick through the window, or I'm in trouble'.

It's been many years since I was last in a classroom, but the fear of going to see the headmaster kept me on the straight and narrow.

Arthur, Newcastle,

Stuff and nonsense.

How was I ever persuaded that New Labour was competent?

Cassandra, South East,

Yet again more focus on the 'disruptive kids.' Again the high achievers are left with no incentives, recognition, and so end up under achieving. And we wonder why industry and the economy under performs? 'Joined up Government?? Joined up madness more like. With top-up fees on the one hand and praise on the other, no wonder university applicants are confused!

Stella, London, UK

This is ridiculous. Why can't we just let teachers teach rather than giving them a lot of political correctness to follow. They have enough work on their plates rather than bother with this poltical rubbish.

If a child is unruly then they should be warned twice then disciplined. It is also down to the parents to help educate their child; teachers should not be considered surrogate parents. Do schools still have "houses" and reward children with "house points" for good work? Removal of house points was considered a massive shame when I was at school because you felt you let the team down.

Teamwork and building up children's ability to work with others is the best way to get them to work together and then soon enough colour of skin or religion won't matter!!!! They'll be friends.

Am I the only one that see this as political points scoring with the voters rather than what is best for the children?

Miles, london,

What a nonsense.

There was NO, abosolutely NO bullying at my school that's because it was stamped on heavily. One boy who bullied another was made to walk around the school in a girl's summery uniform with a boater on his head while everyone else was to watch. I assure you that boy or any other boy or girl ever bullied anyone.

There is absolutely no reason why bullying or bad behaviour should be allowed to exist. The children need to learn manners and boundaries. How will they learn that if more disastrous, badly thought out lefty policies such as are implemented. Teach the children responsibility, kindness and thoughtfulness. Stop all this sneering, I'm so cool nonsense.

Jane, London, England

Something I don’t understand is that the author of this guidance seems to actually wish for teachers and children to be thought of on the same level. Since when did children have rights in school and what’s wrong with the term student. The purpose of a school is to teach, isn’t it? Also seems a back track on the ethnic integration. So much effort is supposedly being made so insure immigrants hold British values and the guidance in school is their children should be allowed to behave in the cultural norm of social style for them. Seems British cultural is going to be more like a zoo in years to come. I haven’t been out of school that long but my school seems like a 1950's detention centre in comparison to this liberal minded nonsense. If kids do not learn respect, self discipline and etiquette in school when will they?

Dave, London,

I am not a teacher but it seems to me that it's one rule for one and one rule for another. Just beacause it is a social norm for a child to be loud, aggressive etc does not mean that they should behave that way in the classroom. Guidelines such as these will only pave the way to a socitey that is less and less intergrated. If we continue to tread down the path that this goverment is doing we will end up with a secular socitey.

Mike, Manchester,

I totally agree, in fact we should also try this on persistent offenders, perhaps it will turn them into model citizens! - )

Paul, Bedford,

"...They know that disruptive children, normally from broken homes, will dominate teachers' attention and skew the curriculum to the dumb end..." Mike Evans, Midsomer Norton, uk

With sweeping statements like that Mike, I reckon you're a little closer to the 'dumb end' than you'd like to think...!

Rod Munch, Northampton,

There is a quicker and cheaper way to discipline unruly lads - put the cane across their backside. Can work wonders!

Allan Green, Westcliff on Sea, England

Please could you find out under the Freedom of Information Act how many of the faceless experts at the DFES are qualified teachers?

Sir to you, Ashford, UK

I wonder if the new guidelines have actually been conceived by teachers. I am not saying that the argument is without validity, but that the logic is fundamentally flawed. Reality dictates that alienation does not only take place in the classroom, and the sources of disruptive and negative behaviour are also not only in the classroom. To me it seems another way of placing the blame on the teachers and letting society (and a socially engineering government) off of the hook. It is not just teachers who need to fulfil their civic responsibilities.

Julian Griffin, Leicester,

Ah well, the lunatics have finally taken over the asylum. Would the last to leave please turn off the light...

howard parkinson, Perth, Australia

The big question is: Have any of the boneheads who came up with this rubbish ever been in a classroom?

In my personal experience of completing the entire teacher training program at the largest School of Education was that all but one were fuzzy minded theorists who had never actually taught children. The exception had not been in a classroom for 25 years. Worse still, the Dean of the School of Education had only done research and had never actually taught children!

How informative it would be to learn the authors' cumulative experience of teaching children, especially in an tough and dangerous inner city classroom.

Bob Evans, anaheim, california

When central governments start issuing directives telling teachers how to manage their classrooms, you know they have been in power too long. Over-disciplining is by definition bad, and most teachers appreciate that. However in a class of thirty sometimes it is necessary to act in the interests of the majority for good order, even if that means sending out a troublemaker so that he learns nothing. Most teachers also appreciate this.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

Do these so-called experts actually understand applied behavioural analysis? Handing out praise noncontingently is likely to contact unwanted behaviour and to the extent that praise is a reinforcer is likely to strengthen that behaviour. What a superficial understanding of behaviour theory (B. F. Skinner must be turning in his grave). More junk from a bankrupt government. It really is a pity Brown won't call an election after Blair resigns.

Ian Burgess, Bristol,

Alan Smithers, a professor in Education, more a professor of foolishnes. pamper the badly behaved. Does he have a footing in the real world, apparently not. I fear for every blessed teacher in this land, who dares to pick up on Alans fantastic analysis on the subject of discipline and control.

Alan take heart and redo your exams, I feel retrainning is in order dear boy.

Peter Hagan, Liverpool, England

To suggest public humiliation is worse for 'some cultures' than others is pandering to the whims of religious control. Why is it deemed less humiliating for a white person to be embarrassed in front of other people than it is for a muslim to 'lose face' in the same position?
Ethnicity should be ignored when dealing with any situation. When you start treating ethnic groups differently then rasicm follows. It is time all these PC freaks realised they are partly responsible for the rise in the very thing they are trying to weed out through control rather than education.

David Thijm, Stourbridge, UK

Trying to make use of positive feedback and 'looking for' things to praise in 'naughty' children is nothing new. Parenting books, not just governmental or PGCE teaching tips, have been advising it for years. The theory is sound: constant criticizm becomes at best a background noise, or all to often these days a gauntlet thrown down with which children do their worst ! Sadly, as a support teacher in a primary school, I can see that very few classroom teachers really have the skills to make good use of the good advice. When you do come across a teacher who can manage children well in this way it is revelatory, and a delight to witness. And the children thrive. It seems clear to me that a year's postgraduate preparation is simply not enough to prepare many people for the teaching profession, which demands greater knowledge not only of child development , but crucially of people management than ever before. Teachers are not 'expert' enough for their jobs: they need superior training.

Jim Jones, Leeds,

The U.K. world gets crazier by the second!

When am I going to wake up from this nightmare where everything is the wrong way round? Right is wrong, good is bad and now the cretins in control are now saying that if pupils behave badly they should not always be chastised by sometimes praised!

There is a well established economic law that states 'bad money drives out good' and is approprite to our teaching profession. What self respecting teacher will not despair at the current leaderrship in our schools?

Dudley Wood, Wilby , Suffolk

It is about time that those in government who come out with these initiatives, go back to school and become a teacher for a few weeks. That will allow them to see that some real initiatives are needed - and not these politically correct tree-hugging bits of rubbish. Maybe it is time they listened to the unions.

When last did Alan Johnson stand in front of a group of unruly children?

Pat, London,

Why do I keep getting the impression that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum in this county?

Mo, London,

Pity parents who are anxious for their children to receive a good education. They know that disruptive children, normally from broken homes, will dominate teachers' attention and skew the curriculum to the dumb end.

Government would be better occupied trying to think how it can create a population of pupils who come to school eager to learn.

Mike Evans, Midsomer Norton, UK