Problem-behavior students disrupt every class

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 2:29 a.m.

Teacher John Pendry has been can be dazzled by the inventive ways Amal lands himself in trouble.

In one instance, the fourth grade Amal jams his foot under the chair leg of the girl seated in front of him, nearly toppling her.

"That kid just looks for an opportunity to make a scene," Pendry marvels about his most active troublemaker. "He works at it."

At other times, Amal's behavior -- ranging from annoying to belligerent -- has disturbed Pendry.

"I feel bad for the kid, I really do," Pendry has said. "The thing about Amal is that he is smart. He is really a bright kid. But he does no work. Whenever he doesn't know something, he acts like a clown. It's easier than actually learning."

Ten-year-old Amal is one of four or five troublemakers Pendry struggles with every day.

Pendry is not alone.

Several problem-behavior students emerge in nearly every classroom, every year, educators say.

"It absolutely disrupts everybody," Kay Carl, Clark County superintendent of elementary schools, said. "And that's one of the things that people don't understand -- it really takes its toll on the teacher. And it takes its toll on the other students."

Controlling disruptive students while teaching other students in the classroom is a question of time and energy, experts say.

"No matter how you look at it, these kids are very time-consuming," said Sal Severe, a children's behavior expert and Phoenix psychologist.

Severe, author of a new book for parents of problem-behavior students, says more and more angry children are coming to school.

More children are dealing with stress in their families and taking it out on classmates and teachers, he said. In many ways, today's children are more complicated, he said.

Times have changed, Severe said.

"Today, every kid goes to school, that's not always been the case," Severe said. "Back in the old days, when a kid misbehaved, you could kick him out. That's not the way it is anymore."

Verus Young, a 28-year veteran teacher in Clark County, remembers when paddles hung in some classrooms, "back in the days when parents couldn't sue."

"We didn't have to use it very often," said Young, a fifth grade teacher at Gordon McCaw Elementary School in Henderson. "The kids just had to know it was there."

These days, Young said, "We can send a child into another room for a cool-off period. That's not a very severe punishment. The children know it."

Young said she keeps order now by setting two classroom rules: everyone has the right to learn, and no one has the right to disturb someone else's learning.

Most of Young's students -- well-mannered children -- are "disgusted by the chronically bad behavior of the troublemakers," she said.

Much research points to the importance of "classroom management."

In one analysis of 50 years of research on what affects learning, classroom management was ranked first on a list of 28 factors, ahead of even parent involvement. Researchers for the study, which appeared in trade publication "Educational Leadership" in January 1994, analyzed 179 research chapters on the subject, compiled 91 research syntheses and surveyed 61 educational researchers.

The bottom line: "You can't teach unless the classroom environment is conducive to teaching" said UNLV associate professor Jane McCarthy.

The next generation of teachers trained at UNLV have said they once struggled most with "classroom management" when they landed in the real classroom, McCarthy said. Now the university has a new three-hour course that focuses on managing problem-behavior children, and beginning teachers feel more comfortable keeping order.

"It's difficult, but not impossible," McCarthy said. "We know what it takes to work, we just don't always do it."

Veteran teachers agree.

Clark County teacher Martha Slack said effectively handling problem-behavior students can make or break a classroom.

After more than a decade in a "regular" classroom, Slack now teaches the district's most difficult elementary school children in a special program designed to turn their behavior around. The program puts students in sheltered, structured classrooms at Fong, Mendoza and Treem elementary schools with an 8-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio.

Students spend a lot of time talking about how to deal with their rage.

"These are the kids that we have in the regular classrooms," Slack said. "They need to learn to deal with each other -- they need to learn to control themselves. These aren't monsters -- just kids that need to be taught differently."

One nationally respected teacher, Kay Toliver, said she makes problem-behavior students "my best friends."

Toliver, an award-winning, 25-year teacher from East Harlem, who has her own PBS television show, said teachers must uncover what is at the root of the problem.

"Some of them are looking for an out," said Toliver, who recently visited Las Vegas to talk with students and teachers. "Rather than working against you, you want them to work with you."

Pendry agrees teachers must uncover what makes each child misbehave. Some inherently wage power struggles with authority figures. Others, like Amal, want attention, even negative attention.

Pendry explains that Amal learns nothing when a teacher "blows his stack" at the boy. Amal, who has long had behavior problems, expects teachers to get mad at him.

"He's not comfortable with me telling him how good he is," Pendry says.

Amal's behavior runs in streaks, Pendry said. Some days he shows signs of improvement, especially in reading. At other times, Amal regularly refuses to work and sometimes talks back to his teacher.

Among Amal's offenses this year: typing "F--k you" over and over on his computer screen, destroying magazines and attacking other children at recess.

Pendry has remained patient and tried to spread his attention around the room, even if Amal was demanding it most. He said dealing with problem-behavior students is simply part of a teacher's job.

"I can't write off a kid like Amal because he acts like a goof," Pendry says. "I operate under the assumption that every kid can learn.

"If the 'good' kids aren't getting the attention they need because of the misbehaving kids, then that's the teacher's fault. You're responsible for the good ones, the bad ones, and the ones in between."

Teachers like Pendry can expect that booming Clark County will see an increase of students with all types of behavior problems, said Stella Helvie, director of the problem-student program at Fong, Mendoza and Treem elementary schools.

"It's becoming an epidemic," Helvie said. "The behaviors are way out there and we're seeing more and more of them. It's a societal issue we're going to have to come to grips with."

"I can't write off a kid like Amal because he acts like a goof. I operate under the assumption that every kid can learn."John PendryFOURTH GRADE TEACHER