ABSTRACT
AS Wlodkowski (1982, p. 2) has noted, “If anything could ever had been made real by wishing for it or wanting it, we would have made disciplined students the norm long ago.” Demands for disciplined and obedient students are a clearly defined part of our cultural orientation. The public continues to clamor for more classroom discipline, claiming that uncontrolled students are the number one problem facing our schools (Gallup, 1981). In this way, discipline is construed as the panacea for all learning-related problems. Educators are retained and tenured on their ability to make students learn. Surveys of elementary and secondary teachers indicate that good teaching in their schools is equated with student control (see Hoy, 1968). Experienced teachers and administrators most frequently advocate a rigidly disciplined classroom and are quick to reprimand beginning instructors for their permissiveness (Hoy, 1968). The pervasiveness of the disciplinarian mentality is staggering (see Willever & Jones, 1963; Check, 1979).
