Ron Morrish on Organizing and
Keeping a Basic Discipline Plan
Riley Jones
Hope Watkins
Savanna Williams
Who is Ronald Morrish?
• Ron Morrish was a teacher and behavior specialist in Canada
for many years. He now writes, makes conference
presentations, conducts professional development programs
and works with parent groups and child care providers around
the world. He has written three books: Secrets of Discipline
(1997), With All Due Respect (2000), and FlipTips (2003), a
mini-book of discipline tips and maxims excerpted from his
books and presentations.
• To see Morrish’s own description of his program, called “Real
Discipline,” consult his 2005 article “What is Real Discipline?”
posted on his website at www.realdiscipline.com
Main Ideas
• Ron Morrish says we have to teach students how to behave properly
because many of them do not learn how to do so at home. Our
ultimate goal is for students to develop self-control.
• Supportive adults are missing from many students’ lives today. We
teachers are in an ideal position to offer that support.
• Morrish’s approach to discipline is straightforward, sensible, and
easy to teach and learn. It consists of 4 main components.
1. Rules of behavior
2. Compliance training, in which students are taught how to comply
with expectations.
3. A few carefully chosen things you will do and say when students
break rules.
4. When students are old enough, a provision for allowing and
helping them make choices in a responsible manner.
Main Ideas continued…
• Morrish says teachers should establish rules of behavior, not
students. He believes it is a major mistake for teachers to involve
students in making rules before students have the maturity and
wisdom to do so.
• After rules are established, students must be taught how and why
they are to comply with the rules (compliance training).
• Although rules and compliance training will prevent most problems,
Morrish acknowledges that students will still misbehave at times.
• When that happens, you must be able to redirect student
misbehavior in positive directions, in a manner that leaves no
residue of resentment.
• After compliance has been established, you should teach students
how to manage choice. This will enable them to develop genuine
self discipline.
How and Why Has Modern
Discipline Gone Wrong?
• Morrish gives some blame to society’s “me-first” attitudes and
disinclination to accept responsibility.
• But he assigns more blame to “bad advice” that teachers get
in today’s popular systems of discipline.
• He says that authorities too often urge teachers to involve
students in decision making before students are mature
enough to do so responsibly.
• Teachers waste too much time trying to negotiate with
students about behavior.
• That approach does not demand proper behavior from
students, does not teach students how to behave in school,
and leaves teachers stuck with bargaining with students to get
students to cooperate.
Real Discipline
• Morrish advocates a different approach called Real Discipline.
• Emphasizes careful teacher guidance to ensure that children
learn how to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner.
• Morrish feels that teachers need both behavior management
and discipline, but says that they are not the same thing.
• Behavior management is about creating a functional learning
environment but is not very effective in helping students learn
to behave responsibly.
• Real Discipline teaches students how to behave properly by
showing courtesy and consideration and helps them develop
social skills and trains them to work within a structure of rules
and limits while protecting students from self-defeating
mistakes.
• Morrish argues that many children today are over-indulged
and rarely have to account for their behavior.
• This is because society stresses individual rights and freedom
but has lost sight of personal responsibility that accompanies
rights and freedom.
• Believes that students should be allowed to make choices and
helped to make good ones, but only when they are mature
enough to do so responsibly.
• Students must first learn to develop respect for and
compliance with authority.
• Morrish’s approach has 3 progressive
phases to guide students through.
Phase 1: Training for
Compliance
• Morrish strongly urges teachers to train students to comply
with rules, limits, and authority.
• Rules: descriptions of how students are to behave.
Example: Show courtesy and respect at all times.
• Limits: specify behavior that will not be allowed.
Example: No name-calling in this room.
• Compliance should be taught as a nonthinking activity (a habit
you don’t have to reflect on, such as stopping at a redlight.)
• Explain to students that in order to find success, they must
learn to behave courteously, show self-control, and do what is
expected of them to the best of their ability.
• Practice rules with students until they occur automatically
without having to think about them.
• Address all instances of misbehavior. Do not overlook small
misbehaviors. Poor habits easily expand into poor behavior.
• Morrish says insistence is the best strategy for enforcing rules.
Develop the mindset that that once you give instructions,
there is no question about students doing what you say.
• Teachers do not negotiate limits with students. Morrish says
the first secret of good discipline is: Never give students a
choice when it comes to limits.
• If students have a question about limits, you should make
time to explain the reasons behind them, but students should
not be allowed to ignore the limits.
• Teachers should clearly communicate what they expect of
students and accept nothing less. Make clear that no
negotiation is involved.
Phase 2: Teaching Students
How to Behave
• You will have already established class rules and limits through
practice and repetition.
• This phase involves teaching students skills and attitudes for
behaving properly.
• Begin teaching them how to be courteous, work together
harmoniously, resolve conflicts, set personal goals, organize
tasks, and manage time.
• If you are to have order and acceptable behavior in your
classroom, you have to prepare your students.
• When students fail to comply with expectations, don’t scold or
punish them, but instead have them redo the behavior in an
acceptable manner. Do this as often as necessary.
Phase 3: Managing Student
Choice
• Helps students move toward greater independence by allowing
them the opportunity to make more choices as they show they can
handle them intelligently.
• You should never allow a student to choose to do poor work if
he/she wants to. We should expect students to do quality work and
accept nothing less.
• As students become older and move toward independence, Real
Discipline will have taught them 3 things about making independent
choices.
1. Independence requires balancing personal rights with personal
responsibilities.
2. The rights and needs of others should always be taken into
account.
3. Students should look at every unsupervised situation as an
opportunity to demonstrate personal responsibility.
11 Steps to Planning and Implementing
a Good Discipline Program
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Decide in advance how you want your students to behave.
Design a supporting structure.
Establish a threshold for behavior at school.
Run a 2-week training camp.
Teach students how to behave appropriately.
Set the stage for quality instruction.
Provide active, assertive supervision.
Enforce rules and expectations.
Focus on prevention.
Set high standards.
Treat caregivers as partners.
Developing Positive Relations
with Students
• Consistently focus on the positive. Look for things students
do right.
• Wipe the slate clean after students make behavior mistakes.
Deal with the mistake and move on. Don’t hold grudges.
• Don’t back away from discipline.
• Lead the way. Model good behavior and attitudes.
• Never humiliate students when correcting their misbehavior.
• Don’t accept mediocrity.
Consequences for Misbehavior
• Make an improvement plan.
Have the student make a plan for handling the situation better
in the future. Make sure the student follow through.
• Provide compensation.
Have the student do something positive to make up for negative
behavior, such as making the classroom look better.
• Write a letter.
Have the offending student write a letter to the person who was
offended.
• Teach younger children.
Have the student tell the story to younger children, emphasizing
what was done wrong and what was learned from the
experience.
Motivation, Rewards, and
Fostering Self-Esteem
• Morrish advises teachers to forego praise and reward when
students do what is expected of them.
• Occasional rewards are fine because they give special
recognition when needed, but overall, rewards are vastly
overused.
• Students develop healthier attitudes if teachers praise student
work and behavior only when they truly merit recognition.
• Morrish says success in school determines self-esteem.
• Genuine self-esteem comes from increased competence in
academic and social and the ability to overcome obstacles.
• If we teach students academic and social skills, students will
come to think well of themselves.
• Competence comes first, then self-esteem follows.
What if Students Fail to Comply
with Your Directions?
• Instead of time-out or some other consequence, you should
insist on a do-over.
• Teachers should not use if-then statements, such as, “If you
speak to me in that manner again, then you will be going to
the principal’s office.”
• Teachers should give students no choice in the matter by
saying, “We don’t speak that way in this class. Start over.”
• The most important and powerful rule is insistence.
• If a student still refuses to do what you say, repeat the
instruction in a serious tone of voice and if that doesn’t work,
then you can use a mild punishment such as a time-out to get
the message across. After a short time, bring the student back
to do the task directly.
The Nature of Real Discipline
• Discipline is a process, not an event.
• Discipline is about giving students the structue they need for
proper behavior.
• Discipline isn’t what you do when students misbehvae, it’s
what you do so they won’t.
• If you teach students to be part of the solution, they’re less
likely to be part of the problem.
• When dealing with adolescents, be more like a coach and less
like a boss.
• Discipline is about preparing them properly for the choices
they will be making later.
• Students learn far more from being shown how to behave
appropriately than from being punished.
• Today’s practice is tomorrow’s performance.