Coming September 23, 2008:

PANEL PARTICIPANTS
Promoting Positive Student Behaviours in Ontario's Schools

  Alfie Kohn, one of this year's keynote speakers at the Canadian Association of Principals' 26th Annual Conference on "Charting New Waters" is also the author of eleven books, including Beyond Discipline and Punished by Rewards. (For more information on Kohn's work, and for a representative selection of his writing see www.alfiekohn.org.). In much of his work Kohn argues that the most fundamental decision educators have to make where issues of "discipline" are concerned, is whether educators should do things to students or to work with them. The idea of "doing to" in this context is defined as providing punishment ("consequences") and rewards ("positive reinforcement"). For Kohn both of these tactics are aimed at eliciting compliance and are not only ineffective in the long run, but also detrimental to students' interest in learning, their concern for others, and their capacity to take responsibility for their own actions. By contrast, working WITH students involves the creation of a caring classroom community in which students actively participate in making decisions. Helping children to become good learners and good people requires us to look beneath kids' behaviours in order to move beyond traditional strategies that tend to focus on maintaining control in the classroom.

  Philip Hall is a psychologist with 30 years of experience working with children who have challenging behaviors. For the past 10 years, he has been the Director of the School Psychology Program at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota. During that time Hall provided a comprehensive clinic for children, and the families of children with oppositional and defiant behaviors. Recently retired from academic work, he continues to consult widely to schools faced with students who have challenging behavior or learning problems.
  Roberta Richin is a staff and curriculum development specialist consulting to public and private schools, universities, law enforcement agencies, health service providers, parent organizations, state education departments, and corporations. Richin brings 25 years of experience to improving student learning, school safety, character, and conduct through curriculum, instruction, and discipline practices. She is an adjunct instructor at The State University of New York at Stony Brook, and has published a variety of journal articles and curricula.

   Stephen Wessler is the Executive Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, located in Portland, Maine. Wessler has conducted scores of workshops, lectures and keynote addresses on preventing hate violence for educators, students, police officers, correctional staff, health care professionals and community members throughout the United States, Canada, Northern Ireland and the Middle East. In his capacity as an attorney, he developed and directed the civil rights enforcement effort at the Maine Department of the Attorney General from 1992 to 1999. Wessler is the author of The Respectful School and a number of articles, reports and other publications focusing on hate crimes and prevention. He is also a faculty member of the University of Southern Maine.
For more information about this unique event, e-mail dave.bird@ascd.ca.