Kind and Firm for Teachers

Below is an excerpt from Positive Discipline Tools for Teachers by Jane Nelsen and Kelly Gfroerer.

As a teacher, do you have a tendency toward being a little too kind, and have difficulty being firm? (You don’t want to be one of those mean, autocratic teachers.) Or are you a little too firm because you think kindness can be wishy-washy? (You don’t want to be one of those permissive teachers.) Is it your tendency to be kind until misbehavior occurs, and then too firm? A cycle of vacillating between too kind and too firm is easy to fall into, especially when you teach large class sizes with challenging classroom dynamics.