Real Schools Community Members Teacher Practice Article – March 2015 I don’t get no respect! As a kid, one of my favourite times of the week was Saturday mornings. It was a time to take control of the tv and to let the morning cartoons wash over me endlessly. If I was up early enough, it was The Thunderbirds first, perhaps followed by a little Hey Hey It’s Saturday (way back when it was a children’s show) and a procession of quality programming like the Wacky Races, Scooby Doo, Magilla Gorilla, The WonderTwins and of course The Flintstones. But, as we all do, I had a favourite – and it was Jabberjaw.

Jabberjaw wasn’t the most popular cartoon amongst my discerning friends but to me he was the king of cartoon characters. I’m not 100% sure of how Jabberjaw earned such high esteem with me. Perhaps it was his enormous bumbling awkwardness I firmly believe that (something I could more than relate to) or maybe it was his infectious “nyuk nyuk nyuk” laugh that I couldn’t quite replicate. Either way, there was a line that Jabberjaw respect is a lot more used in every episode that I couldn’t get enough of. Whenever Jabberjaw was questioned, defied or made to look silly he would eye the ‘camera’ and give a defeated important, and a lot “I don’t get no respect”. Head to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBrHf0I4IgY for a greater, than brief venture back to those Jabberjaw infected Saturday mornings. It’s fair to assume that Jabberjaw didn’t know that he was foretelling an popularity. expression that Teachers worldwide would come to utter despondently in -- Julius Irving staffrooms with monotonous regularity, just a few decades later. As I travel to schools across Australia, I’m often asking if Teachers feel that we have a problem with respect in our schools. Almost unanimously the answer is ‘yes’. The Cheat Sheet Whether it manifests as defiance, a distinct lack of empathy, lying, avoiding Don’t have time to soak in the responsibility, swearing or even threats and aggression – a lack of respect, at least at whole article today? Here’s the an anecdotal level and according to our Teachers, is at epidemic proportions in our schools. big points … It’s also true that schools are far from the root of this problem and that pervasive Respect is big and largely media and helicopter parenting perpetuates continual messages to convincing kids indefinable. that they alone stand as the most important creatures in the world – even though by 2. Many smaller behaviours sit definition they ALL can’t be.

beneath the Respect banner. So what then is our role? How then can we contribute to a restored respect in our 3. We have a problem with schools, evidenced by a healthy respect within the inordinate number of relationships Respect in Australian Schools. in a school community?

4. Embed & model the small Well, the first thing that needs to be done is to get clear about what respect really is Respectful behaviours. and how we experience it. This has been explored deeply within Restorative Practices 5. Don’t fall for the trap of research about what the most respected Teachers and Parents do to build and “commanding” Respect. sustain respectful relationships. The research produced a list comprising:

Listen Empathise Honest/Integrity Open Respectful Show Interest AITSL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS Make Time Firm & Fair Encouraging … and you addressed them by reading! Set Clear Boundaries Non-judgemental Acceptance Believe in them Humour & fun Affirming Create a learning environment Be real Apologise – be vulnerable The Big One Then it’s about how we can explicitly weave these behaviours into our practice. While quite informal in nature, it’s clearly the Teachers who have focus and intention in the 4.3 Manage challenging way that they deploy these behaviours who are the most successful in fostering behaviour respectful learning environments.

It’s also worth noting that within the list we can’t find the word “command”. It seems But also … that commanding respect might work within competitive systems like armies or 3.3 Use teaching strategies sporting teams but that merely demanding respect the way a dictator might through assumed power within a collaborative system, like a school, just doesn’t cut it … or 3.5 Use effective classroom work. communication 6.3 Engage with colleagues and So it stands to reason that running a hard line about respect and pushing ever harder to extract respect from our students against their will is as counter productive as it improve practice. sounds. The answer to greater respect in our schools is to demonstrate it, model it and embed it as a cultural norm. Of course, there are students who will test our resolve and make it incredibly difficult to stay focused on modeling respect.

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