The Teacher and the Trouble-Maker

Annette Lindsay was a special education teacher in Toronto.

The Teacher and the Trouble-Maker is a well-researched analysis of the background, approaches, and techniques for instilling and maintaining responsible behavior in the classroom. It is a brief but pertinent introduction to historical and contemporary methods that would be beneficial particularly for beginning teachers.

After a brief discussion of traditional disciplinary techniques, the authors conclude that the self-concept approach to classroom discipline is most valid. Humanism, they feel, merely extends the tenets of behaviorism and psychotherapy, which alone could not adequately encourage responsible behavior.

The authors persuasively invite teachers to approach discipline in terms of the student’s feelings and perceptions of himself and the situation in the classroom. They deal at length with the five humanistic goals of education: positive self-concept, responsibility, identification, effective human relationships, and openness to creativity and new experiences.

There are practical suggestions and strategies for dealing with the various types of children a teacher encounters in the average classroom, most of which centre on the objectives mentioned above. In addition, a pertinent review of teacher attitudes is both thought-provoking and disturbing.

On the whole, the book is an adequate introduction to classroom management philosophies and techniques. Its extensive reference list provides further titles of the major authors in the field. The illustrations, however, are off-putting and old-fashioned, somewhat reminiscent of those found in a 1940s reader. The authors have organized and categorized their work efficiently into a presentation the reader readily follows. The final section, on workshop strategies, is useful and concise.