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"Tattle Tale, Tattle Tale!"

© Thomas Robertson

"Teacher, Johnny's picking his nose!"

"Uh-huh."

"Teacher, Suzy called me a dodo!"

"Uh-huh."

"Teacher, Nathan pointed a knife at Carla."

"Uh-huh. Oh, wait - Nathan, you stop that right this minute!"

Some of the messages you hear are petty, and some aren't. So we need to discuss the woefully neglected topic of tattling. Here are some suggestions which have been made by other teachers:

Define what is tattling and what is not

Ask these questions:

1. Is the student hurting him/herself or someone else?

2. Is the student breaking the rules?

If the answer to either question is yes, then there is a legitimate complaint. Thanks to Vivian Galebach of Ephrata, PA.

Foster independence

"What would you like me to do?"

"Is this a problem that you can solve on your own?"

Mary Anne Duggan often asks these questions to her students at Scottsdale, AZ.

A tattler reporting to Caroline Johnson of Fontana, CA, must return to the tattlee and one: cite the rule which is being broken, and two: suggest an alternative.

Betcha some of Caroline Johnson's students will be very good teachers a generation from now!

Ask for an affidavit

David Reitz of Virginia Beach, VA, keeps an elegantly decorated Tattling Box, which he reviews at the end of the day. The important messages usually get written up and the unimportant messages usually don't.

If your students haven't learned to write very well, use a tape recorder instead, like Dana Nicklas of Zelienople, PA.

A touch of positive reinforcement

Christin A. Braunel of St. Louis, MO, is another unofficial education professor. In order to tattle in her class, one must say something good about the defendant.

Tracey Paul of Chetek, WI, has a similar idea: she exhorts her students to stay on the alert for praiseworthy behavior on the part of their classmates, write it up, and deposit it in the "Terrific Tattles" container.

I wonder how she would feel about a teacher keeping a Tracey Paul-style container alongside a David Reitz-style container.

Appoint a volunteer

Appoint one of your students as the Tattle Patrol. If you want to "let the punishment fit the crime," you can honor the most tattle-prone student in your class with this office.

Thanks to Amy Barsanti of Nags Head, NC.

Tina Bilger Vaughn of Christiansburg, VA, instructs her volunteer to say, "Why do you think the teacher needs to know about this?"

Go below the surface

If these ideas seem too behavioristic for you, then you might wish to deal with habitual tattlers as Mary Anne Duggan of Scottsdale, AZ, prescribes.

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