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In every classroom there are likely to be students who don't believe that their ideas are of any
value. They expect their teachers and their classmates and their school administrators to ignore
their ideas and opinions.

In every classroom there are likely to be students who are overly aggressive and believe that they
should dominate everyone else. They are likely to bully their classmates. They are likely to
disobey and challenge their teachers and their school administrators.

A prime challenge, therefore, that faces every classroom teacher is to find effective ways to
manage to have a classroom wherein every student feels free to ask questions and to openly
express his or her ideas and opinions in an atmosphere of mutual respect, full acceptance and
undiminished harmony.

A seemingly impossible dimension of this primary challenge, that every classroom teacher faces,
is to motivate every student to willingly listen to and cooperate with every other student.
Creating ways for everyone's ideas to be incorporated into the management of classrooms
becomes an ongoing, unending task. Students, themselves, however, provide many of the needed
solutions to this task. The rewards reaped are very much worth the time and energy that has to be
expended in order to achieve desired results.

It is from direct, on-going experience that I have learned that the suggestions and
recommendations, included in this article, can be effective with students. In my experience, this
includes all students. It includes students who have been labeled "difficult" by other teachers, in
other classrooms.

My experience with students, who were labeled "difficult", and ejected from the classrooms of
other teachers, dates all the way back to the 1955-56 school year. It goes back to when I was a
beginning teacher, in the public schools of the city of Chicago.

From the beginning, when I was a new classroom teacher, I was challenged to find ways to teach
students whom other teachers claimed that they could not handle, in their classrooms. Way back
then, I was fortunate enough to begin to discover ways to develop rapport with and to teach
students who were labeled "difficult", by their other teachers.

The pivotal, most important discovery was that neither I, nor anyone else, can control and
manage the behaviors of students for them. Students have to be motivated, from within, to
control and manage their own behaviors, because that is what they want to do. I am not talking
about forced "compliance" that can be achieved by threats of punishment, in this regard. Forced
"compliance" lasts only as long as "enforcers" are present, ready to deliver punishments. I am
talking about the truly effective inner discipline that can develop, within all of us, and causes us
to behave in spontaneously desirable ways because our actions are in accordance with our
beliefs, attitudes and opinions.
The discovery of ways to plan and act in accordance with the following facts has enabled me to
work, with much success, with students throughout the years.

1. The most "difficult" students are often likely to be the most intellectually capable. It is
probable that their high intelligence is what enables them to succeed at being devious, deceitful
and manipulative.

2. "Difficult" students are quick to learn. They are quick to "take charge". They are quick to take
advantage of situations. They are good leaders. They are good listeners and anxious to be
listened to.

3. Many "difficult" students have deficiencies in basic reading, writing and mathematical skills.
They are likely to be ashamed and sensitive about their deficiencies. They are desirous of
overcoming their deficiencies, but they don't want to be embarrassed, in the process. They
appreciate teacher who can and will teach them without making them feel more ashamed than
they already are.

4. These "difficult" students become less and less "difficult" as more and more of their ideas and
suggestions are incorporated into the management of their classrooms. Students who help to
establish the standards of operation for their classrooms are the best ones to help in the
orientation of new students.

5. The majority of "difficult" students are avid learners. They are curious and creative. They do
not hesitate to accept intellectual challenges and are proud of their ability to solve problems.
They are also proud of their academic achievements.

It, seemingly, surprises some persons that I am still active in classrooms with "difficult" students.
Since the 2004-2005 School Year, I have functioned in classrooms with 6th to 12th graders in
"alternative" or "reconnecting youth" programs. It, seemingly, surprises other persons that I have
chosen to function primarily with students at lower academic levels instead of with students at
college levels. I have chosen to function primarily with students at elementary of mid/high
school levels because it is from these levels from which greater numbers of students are being
lost.

It is surprising to me that, after so many decades, so many teachers are still experiencing so
much difficulty with managing students in classrooms. It surprises me that so many school
administrators are still enabling so many teachers to label so many students as "difficult" and to
eject them from their classrooms. It surprises me that, after all these years, worst practices in
classroom management still persist and are being perpetuated.

Over the years, school administrators and co-teachers in some places have asked that I share
methods of interacting with "difficult" students. This kind of sharing has been difficult for me to
do because so many of my co-workers assume that I am dissembling when I tell them that any
and all students can be "difficult" at times. Many of my co-workers continue to become hostile
when I state that they ought to cease labeling any students as "difficult".
Sharing methods of classroom management has been difficult because many persons do not
believe me when I explain that I do not manage and control the behaviors of students. It is very
hard for most persons to understand why mere compliance, for fear of punishment, is not
enough. It is hard for most people to comprehend that changes, in the behaviors of students, need
to be resultant from their own well-developed inner disciplines.

Sharing classroom management methodology has been difficult for me to do because most of my
co-workers have been reluctant to accept invitations for them to spend quality time in my
classrooms participating in activities with my students and me.

Although some of the things, mentioned earlier in this article, are quite similar to things
experienced with students in numerous schools and classrooms, the uniqueness and individuality
of each and every student make it impossible to develop standard methods or techniques that can
be used successfully with all students, in all circumstances.

In my experience, there is but one pervasive, situation-to-situation common factor. That factor is
the need for first-hand, face-to-face, person-to-person, teacher-to-student interactions. The
development of honest trust and true mutual respect requires that kind of one-on-one
communication.

I hope that it is readily realized that everything that I have stated, about dealing with "difficult"
students, applies to dealing with all students, in all classrooms, because it truly does.

My professional educator experiences, over the past fifty plus years, span elementary levels to
college levels and includes classroom teaching and school administration, at all of those levels.
Early on, I realized that labeling, categorizing and stereotyping of students is detrimental, rather
than helpful, has been borne out, repeatedly.

Students, are students, are students! Any and all of them can and will present problems, in
classrooms, of one kind or another. Most likely there will always be problems and problem
situations in schools and classrooms.

Most likely, there will always be students, presenting problems in classrooms, who can be helped
to stop doing so, by teachers fearless enough and caring enough to communicate with these
students effectively enough to allow them to discover that, although their negative behaviors will
always be condemned, they, themselves will always be valued, respected and cherished.

Most likely, there will always be students who cannot be taught successfully, whose learning
cannot be facilitated successfully, in regular classroom situations. These students need to be
helped to realize how they, themselves, are valued, apart from their negative behaviors. They
need to be helped to accept and embrace that knowledge so that they can "take it to heart" and
begin to modify their behaviors sufficiently enough and soon enough to benefit from the
schooling available to them.