ABSTRACT
If acting is the art of stopping people coughing, teaching is the art of stopping them throwing things about. For hard-pressed teachers of difficult children the whole concept of classroom management seems to embody an unattainable ideal. Children whose behaviour is predictable only in its unpredictability can effortlessly thwart attempts to plan and implement any goal-directed activity. In reviewing their lesson planning, many teachers often find themselves in the same position as the British Surgeon General in the Crimean War. Asked why the medical services had collapsed, he is said to have replied: ‘The medical services would have been perfectly adequate if it had not been for the casualties’ (Taylor, 1969).
