Teachers are often trained to demand immediate compliance from students, but immediate compliance does not exist. Trying to control student behaviors through power struggles like demands will lead to resistance, not compliance. It is better for teachers to shape student behaviors over time through consistent example and interactions rather than confrontational demands. An alternative is to utilize a non-confrontational approach that highlights choices for students and the consequences of those choices, causing students to assume responsibility for modifying their own behaviors. This eliminates stress for teachers while clearly identifying behavioral boundaries and ensuring fair treatment of all students.

1. The Illusion of Immediate Compliance
Here’s the thing you need to understand about immediate compliance: it doesn’t
exist.
Does a small child naturally obey--or disobey?
Is a small child naturally self-controlled--or lack control?
There’s a big difference between trying to control behaviors and trying to shape them
over time through consistent example and intentional interactions.
Apparently, this is a mystery to many people.
What happens in the beginning or middle of the intervention process doesn’t bother a
teacher, IF he or she believes that students are involved in a process of personal
transformation that will lead to the development and display of functional behaviors.
Teachers can put up with a little, temporary discomfort, when they know that student
behaviors will increasingly improve over time: and when they recognize that they are
primal agents in a student’s story of success.
Good teachers are like that.
What are most teachers trained to do, however? [demand immediate compliance]
Demands are power struggles, and power struggles lead to resistance, not
compliance.
It’s like walking up to someone and pushing them: most people push back, some
violently; and almost everyone takes offense.
If your goal is to cyclically offend and anger students in an ever-escalating conflict
that leads to immediate disciplinary action and your own emotional and mental angst,
utilize the power struggle model of student intervention: it’s guaranteed to work just
that way, every single time.
Otherwise, you might want to utilize a non-confrontational means of shaping student
behaviors, which accomplishes the following:

2. ● Highlights the only real [four] choices that students possess.
● Holds students accountable for those choices.
● Clarifies the relationship between those choices and specific, identified
consequences.
● Causes students to assume increasing responsibility for modifying their own
behaviors.
● Eliminates the stress [for teachers] of making behavioral interventions.
● Clearly identifies behavioral boundaries.
● Guarantees fair, consistent treatment of all students at all times.
● Documents student performance daily and helps identify trends in student
behavior.
Can we do this [the above]? We have been for years. Why should that change now?