Logical Consequences

A necessary ingredient of developing caring and self-discipline is logical consequences. A logical consequence is going hungry till lunch after deciding not to eat breakfast. Another, is being cold when you forget a coat. Sometimes people confuse logical consequences with punishment.

Logical consequences have three basic properties.

Related to the incident. Forgetting your lunch and not eating is a consequence related to the act of forgetting. Forgetting your coat and not being allowed to go outside because it is too cold is related. Having the student write 50 times I will remember to bring my coat is not related.

Respectfully imposed by the care taker. If a student forgets their lunch a response of, you will have to see if you can borrow a ticket is respectful. If a statement is added like: You would forget your head if it wasn't attached. It is not respectful. A caring teacher shows respect for all people by helping to create a safe positive environment. An authoritarian style lacks this respect and a permissive style does not maintain enough respect in others.

Reasonable: The request for a student to buy an item they may have broken may not be reasonable. They may not have the money or may not be able to earn the money. Particularly if they are in the primary grades. To have them do tasks to earn money or some other sets of activities such as apologize and offer to do something to help alleviate the problem they may have caused is reasonable.

Examples:

Event
It would be related, respectful, and reasonable to
A child spills their milk.
Hand them a towel and ask them to wipe-up the milk.
A child messes up another child’s play area.
Tell them you will help them put it back the way it was.
A child tears another child's paper.
Apologize and help tape the tear.
Trips another child.
Apologize and ask if they are all right or need help.
Puts down a classmate.
Show me a better way to talk to people and think if you should apologize.
Students push another student’s lunch tray onto the floor.
Help clean it up and decide how they will share their lunches.
Students did not complete work in required time because they were talking.
Your work is not done because you have been chatting. You owe yourselves a thirty-minute work time today. When will you make it up? It needs to be done before 3:45.
This group is distracting some of the other groups and getting very little done.
You need to decide on a plan and get started within three minutes. Do you want to do that now or do you want me to assign jobs?

Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes ©