I did a post on the Importance of Negative Consequences. The heart of this post was the fact that positive reinforcement by itself is not the key to successfully dealing with challenging behaviors. Positive reinforcement must be met with implementing negative consequences. Case in point…

I was visiting one of the FB teacher groups I am a part of when I came across this post. Here is what she wrote…

So today was horrible I had a kid get mad because I told the class that #7 on our spelling test was nine. He balled up his paper and cover sheet and threw them and his pencil in my face. Turned around and threw his chair across my room and flipped his desk. I sent the class next door for their safety. He then 

proceeded to throw another 6 chairs, flipped 5 more desks and broke my wooden dividers that we use when testing. Security took him out of my room to our calm room where he got to play with toys and lay on a beanbag. They brought him back an hour later, to rejoin our class. I don’t want him in there. He is dangerous! His anger switch flips for no reason and I have to walk on eggshells to try and keep him from exploding and hurting someone. Here’s some pics from my room. Forgot to say I teach 2nd grade!

I read that and thought… wow!!! There is one thing very wrong with what happened above. This student’s negative behavior was met with positive consequences! Yes, if I didn’t like what I was doing, I would throw a fit, toss some chairs, break some stuff so that I can go to my calm room, lay on a beanbag, and play!!! No wonder this student’s behaviors are as bad as they are… and my guess is that his behaviors have been escalating. After all, the “badder” he is, the longer he gets to “calm” down! This student is not learning to behave. What he is learning is that if I act out, I get to go play with toys while laying on a beanbag! What his calm room has become is a toy room.

So… how does one learn how to behave? It is not through the implementation of positive consequences alone. Depending on the situation, we learn to behave through negative consequences and are motivated to continue to behave with positive reinforcement and/or consequences. There is no way this student will ever learn appropriate behaviors when his bad behaviors are rewarded with a bean bag and toys!!!

Now, you might ask, what should have been done? I like the idea of a calm down room, and have used them before. But my calm room was a room filled with nothing but space and walls. Depending on the student, maybe a blanket, pillow, or beanbag. Positive reinforcement comes when the student is able to go back to the classroom and fulfill classroom expectations in a positive manner. Only when that occurs does the student receive toys, bubbles… you know, the fun stuff. We want to reward positive, expected behaviors from our students with positive reinforcement. We should never, ever, reward bad behaviors with positive reinforcement! After all, what message do you want to deliver?