by Glen Moyer

The famous football coach Bum Phillips once said, “ The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.” Obviously Bum never drove a school bus. After forty elementary students get on a bus, self-discipline is the first thing to go, not the last. Here are a few tips that I’ve discovered to help student’s find their lost self-discipline.

1. It’s your bus. Students respond to driver fear like sharks to blood. I act as if I’m driving in my living room and the students have the privilege of being in my house for a short time each day. Perception is powerful.
2. Respect every student. This balances out #1. Have the heart of a marshmallow and the skin of a rhinoceros. Model total respect, courtesy and self-control to all students. Years later, even the rowdiest of students will remember and appreciate you for it.
3. Discipline early and often. Let students think you’re a rhinoceros long before they think you’re a marshmellow. Disciplining every act of disobedience creates future obedience.
4. Use the mirror. We have a secret weapon; students absolutely can’t help looking in the mirror before and after they misbehave. When they look, don’t disappoint them. I use my eyes in the mirror like a Star Wars light sword so they clearly know that the force is with me.
5. Discipline in mass. Periodically several 8th graders will simultaneously begin acting out “Lord of the Flies.” Instead of trying to sort out who did what, I’ll simply will say; “Okay, all 8th graders are up front until you can act like 6th graders.” “Up front” to 8th graders is like “In the whole” to maximum security prisoners. When I finally release them to the back a miracle happens...group discipline. A trouble maker starts acting up and the other 8th graders are on him like stink on a skunk. “Hey knock it off or we’ll all be “in the whole.”

Yes, students seem to loose self-discipline faster than kindergartners loose teeth, but we can help them find it again. I like to think that for some, we will help them find self-discipline for a life time, not just a bus ride.

When Glen Moyer isn’t driving his living room (Bus #81), he is the pastor at High Point Church in Missoula.