Ways to teach in a gentle manner

The following is a list of ways to teach in a gentle manner and was written by Martin Haberman in an article for educational HORIZONS in Spring 1994:


"*  Put  students  ahead  of subject  matter. Use  students'  interests.
Generate  students'  interests. Never go  through the meaningless
motion  of "covering" material  apart from students' involvement
and learning.
"*  Never use shame or humiliation.
"*  Never scream or harangue.
"*  Never get caught in escalating  punishments to force  compliance.
"*  Listen, hear, remember, and use students' ideas.
"  Model cooperation with all other adults in the building.educational HORIZONS
"*  Respect students' expressions  of ideas.
"*  Demonstrate  empathy for students' expressions  of feelings.
"*  Identify student  pain, sickness, and  abuse,  and  follow  up with
people who  can help them.
"*  Redefine  the  concept  of a  hero.  Show how  people  who work
things out are great.
"*  Teach students  peer mediation.  Do  not expect  students to learn
from  failing; repeated  failure  leads  only to more frustration  and
giving up.
"*  Devise  activities  at which students  can succeed; success  engenders further effort.
"*  Be  a  source of constant  encouragement  by finding good  parts of
all students' work.
"•  Defuse, sidestep, redirect  all  challenges  to your authority. Never
confront  anyone, particularly  in public.
"*  Use  cooperative learning  frequently.
"*  Create  an extended family  in the classroom.
"*  Use  particular subject matters  as the way to have "fights": science
"fights" about  rival  explanations,  math  "fights" about  different
solutions, social studies "fights" about what really happened.
"*  Never ask students for private  information  publicly.
"*  Don't try to control by  calling on  children who  are not paying
attention  and embarrassing  them.
"*  Demonstrate respect for parents in the presence of their children

Bits of an article written by Martin Haberman

Martin Haberman is  a  Distinguished Professor in  the  School of

Education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. His seven books

include Star Teachers: The  Ideology  and  Best  Practice  of  Effective

Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty.  In an article published in Spring 1994 by educational HORIZONS, Martin Haberman states in 

Gentle Teaching in a Violent Society,

"The  qualities  that bring a teacher function  to life  and make it
effective  are the  unseen teacher beliefs beneath  his  or her behavior. If,
for example, the  teacher's  real  goal is  to manipulate  and  control students, it will be sensed, understood, and  communicated  to the students.
If, on the  other hand, it is  the teacher's intention to empower the students to control  their own behavior, this too will be  communicated  by
the teacher's  actions. Teacher  acts never impact  on students  independently of the teacher's real intentions. Students will  always  know whether
the teacher's goal  is to control or empower them."

He goes on to say,

"There  can  be no debate  about  this point. Teachers who  start out
intending  to dominate  poor children or youth are doomed  to failure.
Teachers  who seek to empower students may  become  effective  if they
believe  in and  can implement  the functions  of star teachers."

Being pleasant and nice is not a bad thing.  These days, it seems that media is all about the 'me' generation.  Even when our inner self is trying to help someone out, we think "how can I help," instead of asking, "what needs to be done to help?"

Winnie the Pooh was create by A.A. Milne and published by Penguin Putnam Publishers.  These books are written for the heart of children.  The adventures that Christopher Robin creates in his room with his stuffed animals are full of natural playtime moments and it is no question that the situations involved in the dialogues of the characters are not of adults.  The humor is childlike.  The illustrations are childlike as well.