The following is from a tweet "Confessions of a Teacher in a "No Excuses" Charter School....a little creepy and not what I had in mind when choosing education as a career, and the product of a mind that just doesn't get it.
"The behavior management system used by the school is called Whole Brain Teaching, created by Chris Biffle in 1999. The techniques seem to be focused on memorization and repetition. The teacher is supposed to be entertaining and use a lot of energy. The teachers I observed, both in person and in online videos, seemed like square dance callers, auctioneers, carneys in the circus or entertainers on a stage. The fast-talking, call-and-response approach and exaggerated, attention-getting gestures seemed inappropriate. I had difficulty modeling this method of discipline because I was horrified by it, shocked that it was considered the norm and contrary to the principles I had learned studying to be a teacher. There are videotaped examples of this method in action with students ranging in age from kindergarten to college. In every video the teacher makes rehearsed gestures and barks out scripted phrases and the students bark back set responses in the same tones using the same gestures.
Making children sit still and listen, avoiding dangerous situations, creating a sense of order and civility was presumably the goal. In this case behavior management is a mild term for describing a system of regimentation for the sake of control. It is authoritarian and haunting. Students are expected to walk in the hallway like robots: silent, hands straight by their sides, a puff of air in their cheeks referred to as “the bubble” so that they cannot talk, in two straight lines."
From Lulu Café, http://wp.me/p2odLa-7oy
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