Fear or Respect?? tell me...

Can someone name all these dic-tators...?

Here is a good forum topic for the blogosphere. Is respect and fear integrated or mutually exclusive? Can there be a combination of both? Can you have them both?

This was a topic that a friend of mine and I got on to when we were talking about discipline in the classroom. My idea of respect is a more idealized version of treating others well. If you treat them as important and needed then they should do the same in return.

Well, teaching a bunch of 16 –18 year olds, THAT goes right out the window. I needed a new strategy. I talked to my friend (also a teacher), and said person, suggested a more dictator like approach. He said, “Fear will make them do what you want.” Well, something like that anyway. That is what I ‘heard’ OK.

At first I buckled. “I can’t possibly do that! It is against everything passive in my personality!”, I thought. What about mutual respect and teaching these kids a different perspective?

I kept thinking about this topic because he was convinced that he had both fear and respect from his students. As I wound myself up to walk into the chaos of this hormonal class, I was still thinking about it.

After 15 minutes of not have order or attention, my inner dictator made an appearance. Lo and behold, I got attention. I still don’t know about the respect part, but the hell with that if I actually can get through the lesson plan. So much for idealism!

I can see why some animals eat their young…