Why Student Behavior Won't Change Until the Adults Do

Student behavior changed when the adults did: 25 discipline calls a day dropped to about one. Here's the adult-first work behind it. School discipline problems don't start with the kids. Sarah spent years answering 20 to 25 walkie calls a day for escalated students. Tokens, red-light-green-light charts, taking away recess — external systems trying to fix an internal issue. Then she started doing the work on herself first. Ten days into opening a brand-new school this fall, she hasn't answered 12 calls total. Jill Molli has taught Conscious Discipline for 25 years, and she names the leap most principals never make. They'll regulate themselves for a kindergartner. They won't do it for the teacher who yells in the hallway but posts good test scores. Sarah Sicht did it with teachers, parents, and her own superiors. At her previous school, a 100% free-and-reduced-lunch building, that produced zero teacher turnover and a move from the bottom 10% of the state to the top 10% of Title I schools with the same kids and no redistricting. Jill also breaks down SAFE, the four-domain framework Conscious Discipline built by studying principals like Sarah: Sustained leadership, Adult regulation,...