every battle
Early in me education career I was told that I would need to "pick my battles." And though I would have to do that in order to make education sustainable, there is no world in which I look at a student making a inappropriate choice in my classroom and ignore that behavior. I really believe that letting bad behavior slide because it "isn't the chosen battle" is why we have so much violence, tardies and absences, belligerent outbursts, cheating, drug use, smoking/vaping, missing work/failing classes - I could go on, but you get the point. If that behavior is not one admin's or teacher's "battle" then the behavior is allowed to continue, students are then offended when a different admin or teacher addresses it, and more students follow in suit with delinquent behavior, because other people are not getting in trouble for it. I think the phrase "pick your battles" is perfectly appropriate when raising children. Debating as to whether a to...