Scene 4 – Don’t Count Your Chickens

The following week, Ms. Peters and Mrs. Byron gathered together a group of seven teachers in Eagle School’s conference room. It was a meeting to gain faculty buy-in. These were key Eagle Elementary School staff to whom the duo wanted to introduce the Cooperative Discipline program to and gain their commitment to installing the program at Eagle Elementary School.

Janet and Jeannie had invited teachers from both the primary and upper grades who were influential in their instructional clusters, and who had either attended the same fall conference as Janet, or had seemed interested in cooperative discipline methods to help control students' behavior. Several of those assembled, in fact, had reported behavioral trouble from students in their own classrooms to Principal Rogers.

As a result, Ms. Peters thought that these teachers would have personal interest in improving student behavior. Therefore, she concluded, they would be more than willing to focus their energy and time on the project she had in mind.

She was surprised at their reactions. Four of the seven teachers simply "hadn’t any additional time in their planning periods for implementation." The Cooperative Discipline program would require too much of a commitment, they chorused. Besides, they said, they weren’t prepared to change their routines to accommodate classroom meetings and monthly parent meetings.

They qualified their turndown almost apologetically. "The program was a great idea", they said.