[Critical Reflection Paper] CRP1 EDJH (Made 2024 Fall Semester)

Classroom management is, in theory, very simple and straightforward, however in practice it proves to be a much more difficult beast to handle. Classroom management theory is supposed to teach future teachers how to manage their classrooms in a clean and simple manner, but classroom management is never clean or simple, making this “education,” in reality, dangerous. Classroom management theory is, by my belief, dangerous and barely useful at all in an actual classroom. At best, it can provide a small bit of guidance, of scaffolding, for putting together solutions that can actually work in the real world.

Classroom management is, in theory, about validating the concerns and feelings and identities of your students whilst reinforcing good behavior without explicitly punishing bad behavior, at least not in an overly severe way. In theory, by connecting with your students and making them talk about their feelings openly you can get them to connect with each other rather than fight. In reality, this is not always going to work, and, in fact, might make things worse as accusations are flung and tensions continue to flare or as you embarrass a student for what they see as a perfectly reasonable reaction to the situation. The case studies we analyzed in class, such as that of Ms. Rivera’s classroom showcases the dangers of classroom management theory when actually practiced.

To make matters worse, theory is just that: theory. It is talking about potential possibilities, not about actually experiencing things. A teacher can have the perfect plan to diffuse a situation, but when it occurs they might freeze up, have other things that are also calling their attention, or just not be in a position to apply the theory they were taught. Instead of teaching future teachers to think on their feet and prepare to handle things in a more slapdash and chaotic manner, future teachers are taught as though they will have plenty of time to think through the perfect solution, as though they will be able to apply the theory they were taught in a manner that stays true to it, when, in actuality, teachers rarely are going to be able to handle something satisfactorily and will likely need to focus on minimizing damage until they can get a moment to handle things more comprehensively. Classrooms are chaotic, solutions sadly need to be as well. In the Emergency Room at a hospital the doctors don’t have time to think through all the theory they were taught and make the perfect decisions, trying to do that could kill somebody, and the same is, sadly, pretty much exactly true for teachers in classrooms as well.

I can attest that the perfect solutions taught by classroom management theory just don’t work. I had a very bad time in middle school, and I didn’t feel validated or welcome or like I wasn’t a bother. When teachers singled me out to talk to me, tried to break down my guard, tried to help me, I felt invalidated, like a problem, and disgusted with myself. In the end, many found that just letting me cry my eyes out while listening to sad music was the best option and frankly I agree. Classroom theory would call that a failure, but it was the only thing that could bring me back from the brink, the only thing that actually validated me, that actually made me feel like less of a bother, even if I still hated myself for making a scene. Classroom management is too sterile, it is too simple, it teaches future teachers pretty simplifications instead of the truth, and there is little I despise more than that. I want to be a history teacher, so seeing simplifications and half truths taught as though they are reality upsets me greatly. It is something my field is filled to the brim with, and it is not something I am ever happy to see. It is a cancer that needs to be excised once and for all, and classroom management theory is seemingly also infected.

All in all, classroom management is a danger to teachers and students alike. It teacher colorful oversimplifications in lieu of truth and encourages teachers to think things fully through as though they will have time to do that in the middle of a class when a student starts having a mental breakdown or punching another student. Teachers attempting to follow classroom management theory will also likely wind up making students feel like they are being talked down to or called out rather than make them feel like they are being seen in any sort of good way, and all of this is detrimental to both teacher mental health and student mental, social, emotional, and physical health. Classroom management theory needs to be scaled back, really, and hands on experience needs to be held up as more important than theory. Theory can still be useful at times, and it isn’t a bad scaffold most of the time, but that is all it is, a scaffold, and not even a very reliable one. Teaching classroom management theory as fact is simply teaching lies, and I cannot abide by that.