Some thoughts on change

I typed the following paragraph today to the parents of one of my students:

"Change comes when students (people, in general) take the risk to be vulnerable. Usually people will only take this risk when they have some level of trust with whom they are working. To my knowledge, [student] has yet to become vulnerable—to share his fears, concerns, worries, etc. with those who are trying to help him. He thinks he is ‘alright’ and that he just needs to ‘behave’ well--— but we all know that behavior stems from beliefs, attitudes, and values. You can only have meaningful changes in behavior when there are significant changes in beliefs, attitudes, and values."

A lot of my time and energy at work over the past several years has surrounded the notion that behavioralist principles of discipline are not an effective way to motivate change. People that have influenced my perspective include: Alfie Kohn, the Arbinger Institute, my mother-in-law, my wife, and my co-worker.

I will surely blog much more about this in the future. . .