Behaviorist...how much is too much?

As future educators, it is our duty to ensure the learning of our students through effective classroom management procedures; but how much is too much? Let me relate an incident that occurred this past week at my daughter's elementary school.  My daughter is a fifth grader whom I consider being popular and intelligent.  She has several friends that she hangs around with and one fairly close friend.  This past week there was a "lice pandemic" with a couple of classrooms in the fifth grade. Naturally, my daughter was grossed out and went as far as asking me to allow her to stay home for the week.  I obviously did not allow her to stay home but did decide to take my necessary precautions.  Mid-week, my daughter comes home freaked out and upset.  She related that a couple of girls were bullying her about her having lice and calling her names.  I proceeded to ask her if she had let the teacher know about the situation and she stated she had so I, as some of our instructors say, "let the teacher teach".

The next day my daughter came home alleviated and so I figured the teacher took care of business.  To my surprise, she had not only taken care of the issue, but, in my opinion, had blown the issue out of proportion.  I asked my daughter how things were going and she replied with a smirk.  She then stated that her teacher gave the girls ISS also known as in school suspension and had encouraged the girls to act the same way these girls had acted.  She said "My teacher said for my friends and I to shake our hair in their face every time we saw them and tell them to share the lice".  I was furious! I drove myself to the school and asked for a conference on the spot.  This, to a future educator, was unacceptable behavior.  Even the fact that these girls got ISS did not make me happy.  I didn't think that the consequence matched the misbehavior.  It was the first time that these girls had in a sense bullied another student and the consequence of their actions was too severe.  

I voiced my concerns about these girls' punishment and then proceeded to adamantly ask for an explanation to the teacher's actions.  I was infuriated with her response but nonetheless, I kept my cool.  I simply stated that 2 wrongs don't make a right and that her counsel to these young girls, especially my daughter was unacceptable.  She replied saying that these girls needed a taste of their own medicine.  I completely disagreed and went on to tell her that as an educator she should find ways to solve the problem not fuel it.  She explained how she instills in her students the manners they don't learn at home and she drills them daily about how she wants things done.  I responded with a raised eyebrow and decided I would go in to the teacher's classroom to do some observations.  She was very critical about everything and she was very demanding to the students.The students had to sit a certain way, speak a certain way, and even walk in a manner that was approved by her.  It seemed like I was in an army base! After seeing all of the things that were going on in the classroom, I decided to set up another conference and have the principal sit through it.  I was not in approval of the teacher's behavior and needed a change.  I told the principal that I could see the fear in the student's expressions throughout the day and that their learning was being affected because they didn't ask questions to clarify any issue they were having.  Luckily, this triggered the principal to go in and observe as well.  She agreed that the teacher was wrong and needed to ease up on her discipline plan.

Some teachers don't realize that being in control all the time instills fear in their students and they then are not able to communicate effectively.  It is important that teachers allow their students to voice their opinions and feel secure about the environment they are in. Here's a link that supports my theory of a strong behaviorist negatively affecting the performance of students.