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Essay / Rightmyer's Democratic Classroom Guidance Strategy
In Democratic Discipline in Your Classroom, Rightmyer explains through a personal example how children can be led to play and learn together peacefully in a classroom . In his example, the classroom becomes a democracy and children take an active role in solving their own problems within the classroom. The central idea of Rightmyer's problem-solving system for children revolves around the class meeting, or a daily group meeting of all the children in the class. Rightmyer lists the materials needed for this democratic wayfinding system, including a diary and a solution book, and suggests that each be kept in certain places, within reach of children. Each tool must appeal to children. For example, the solution book should be made of brightly colored paper. Before implementing the guidance strategy, the purpose of each of these tools must be clearly explained to the children. It is important to the process that each child understands what the tools are for. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Rightmyer goes on to walk us through the step-by-step, day-to-day process of his democratic leadership strategy. It starts by explaining the process to children at their first class meeting. Children should be given a sample problem to put on the agenda, allowed to brainstorm solutions to the problem together, and the final agreed-upon solution should be recorded in the solution book. The next day, at the class meeting, the new items on the agenda must be discussed and the effectiveness of yesterday's solution must be evaluated together. By the third day, children should begin to describe the problems they have put on the agenda and develop solutions to their own problem, working with the class to form and agree on these solutions. This process should continue every day until it becomes routine. Rightmyer tells us that while the number of problems on the agenda may be long at first, they will eventually subside as children begin to solve problems on their own without the help of group time . The practice must be used consistently and daily for full effectiveness. Personally, I would use Rightmyer's strategy in my own classroom. While I don't plan on working with children old enough to use such a system in my career (it's a huge disappointment - as much as I love the idea, I'll probably never be able to use as it can only be used with older children who have the ability to write), if I ever get the chance, I will use this guidance practice. Children can benefit from the autonomy factor and it's an easy way to get a group of children to work together without conflict. The whole process of identifying the problem (using the diary), working together with mutual input to solve the problem, and finding a solution to the problem is a very important process that children must follow and who can help them solve problems in a future way. It would be worth finding a way to adapt this democratic problem-solving method to work with younger children. Perhaps instead of providing pen and paper, some sort of chart could be used to record the issues on the agenda and the solutions book could use pictures rather than words. As long as the class works together..