Comments on Thoughts on Education Policy: Resisting Impulses and Delaying Gratification

point taken, but there is an important distinction...

2008-04-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

point taken, but there is an important distinction between learning self-control and learning to follow rules

I think the first place to look for discussions of...

2008-04-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

I think the first place to look for discussions of teaching self control is not in ed-policy journals, but in what elementary teachers learn about classroom management in their credentialing programs.

I don't know what is taught explicitly, but certainly all the elementary teachers my daughter had built it into their teaching. The lessons about taking turns, respecting others, working out conflict, etc are in a large part, lessons about impulse control. Extrinsic rewards of the "finish your work today and you'll get 'free-choice' time on Friday" are lessons in delayed gratification.

But this may be an area where what kids learn (or don't learn) at home has changed substantially over the last half century.

Perhaps schools need to focus even more on it now than they used to but it's probably only going to be effective if kids aren't learning something totally different at home.

Hence why I added the caveat "unless I'm looking i...

2008-04-05T11:34:00.000-05:00

Hence why I added the caveat "unless I'm looking in the wrong places." What I mean is that I don't see it mentioned in in most ed policy journals, I really haven't heard about it in my classes, and I haven't seen much in the media. I'm well aware that *somebody* is studying it, but I'm less sure how much influence those who study it have on schools (or try to have on schools). I was thinking about a follow-up post, and your other comments have convinced me that that's necessary.

I'm not sure why you think the topic hasn't been d...

2008-04-05T10:07:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why you think the topic hasn't been discussed: People have written about the "hidden curriculum" of schooling for 40 years, from Phillip Jackson's and Robert Dreeben's books on. In plenty of contexts, teaching "self control" can be a dangerous substitute for academic subjects, serving more as a gateway than as an adjunct topic.

All that doesn't mean that what psychologists call "executive functions" aren't important, but that they're firmly on the radar screens, sometimes to the good and sometimes not.