Education matters

THE loudest shout ever produced by a human being according to the Guinness Book of World Records was recorded at 129 decibels. Considering that the average gun shot is 140 decibels and an industrial lawnmower can easily reach 90 decibels, that is no small feat.

It probably won’t surprise anybody who works in education that the owner of this prestigious world record worked in a school. 

Not that for one minute am I suggesting that she used her impressive talent to assert her authority in the classroom, but in my experience shouting in classrooms to get the attention of children isn’t as unusual as you might think. 

I must point out however that it is only something that I have heard in a classroom where the teaching is weak and the teacher has lost control and that, in itself, is a troubling phenomenon.

So what is it that drives a teacher to shout at the top of their voice in order for them to be heard and why do some teachers think that shouting at children is ever going to enable them to command the respect of their class? 

I believe that it comes down to human nature. As we all know, in the animal kingdom, the loudest roar, squawk or hiss denotes power, presence and authority, particularly in fight or flight situations. 

Animals use volume to make their opponent think that they are bigger and more threatening than they actually are, in the hope that a fight can be avoided and I believe that this is exactly what happens when a teacher loses control of a classroom and has to resort to the worst possible type of classroom management, threatening behaviour such as shouting in a bid to assert control.

Don’t get me wrong, I did it myself when I was a student teacher and made a complete fool of myself in the process, but I was very fortunate to have experienced teachers to demonstrate to me the error of my ways and train me in the art of positive behaviour management. 

One experienced colleague beautifully explained the concept with the phrase, ‘you catch far more flies with honey than with vinegar’ and how right they were. 

Managing children well isn’t about making them fearful of the consequences should they do the wrong thing, it is about making them want to do the right thing because of the reward for doing so and that takes effort from teachers to come up with ideas to inspire the right kind of behavior and then to follow it up. 

The teachers who make classroom management look effortless are, ironically, the ones who have put in the most effort beforehand to create organised classrooms within which children feel respected, encouraged and ultimately confident to learn and since half of learning is about making mistakes, be it learning from the curriculum or life skills, in a classroom like this children can and will make mistakes safe in the knowledge that when they do, it isn’t the end of the world and their teacher isn’t going to blow their top.

Teachers that shout at children or use threats of punishment to manage their classes in my opinion simply aren’t up to the job because they are taking the lazy option.

Anyone can shout, no effort goes into it and whilst you might seem bigger to a child … to an adult you just look puny.