Infantalizing as a Negative Reinforcer

While I was on lunchroom duty, third-grade Teyon was pounding on the table. This put me in a bind. I couldn't isolate him from the rest of the class, because he was already isolated. I couldn't put him in the desk at the corner of the lunchroom, because that seat of honor was already occupied by a similarly deserving student. So what could I do?

Then an idea occurred to me: I clasped my hands together, tilted my head, and spoke in a soft and delicate voice, "Teyon, do I need to sit next to you and hold your hand?"

That got instant results. Teyon was not about to get treated like a baby and get laughed at by his peers.

This started me wondering how many other possible applications are out there. Here are just the possible applications which come to mind:

Hovering over individual offenders

It is commonly agreed that an offending student feels uneasy when a teacher is standing over the student. You can whisper something like "Billy, will you please allow me to get back to teaching the entire class?"

Of course, as far as Billy is concerned, you're more than welcome.

"Thank you, Billy, I appreciate that."

Handling individual children in the classroom

But suppose Billy persists.

You can say, "Billy, I was hoping that you could control yourself wherever I put you in the classroom. Would you like for me to put you right next to the teacher's desk where I can watch you very closely? I don't think you would like to be the teacher's pet, would you?"

If Billy is as rough and tough as he would have his peers believe, he is sure to answer no to this question.

Oh, I forgot to tell you: take Billy out of the classroom first. It would be cruel to hold this dialogue in front of his peers.

Promising educational games as a reinforcer

"I have four decks of arithmetic go fish cards. How many of you would like to play arithmetic go fish?"

Every hand in the class shoots up.

"Good! There's only one problem, though. I can't watch all four games to make sure that all of you behave. So you will have to show me that you can watch yourselves. So can all of you behave for thirty minutes while I work with the entire class?"

Any student who answers no to that question is sure to fall out of favor with the rest of the class.

Keeping the class quiet while the teacher is out of the room

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