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Consequences are Natural!

Posted on October 27, 2019 by Adrian McCune

The world works on a system of natural consequences. You arrive late at the airport, you miss your flight. You did not go to bed at a decent time last night, you’re tired. You skip lunch to work on a presentation, you’re hungry. Every action we take in life has a consequence (positive or negative) attached to it.

Although the world works on a system of natural consequences we often feel the need to contrive consequences for children or students in our care. “I’m sorry you didn’t turn in your homework, you will need to miss recess!” or “I’m sorry you chose to punch Johnny, no recess!” (there’s a lot of missed recess happening in elementary).

Contrived consequences are acceptable consequences, as long as they are logical and not meant to punish the child (because consequence and punishment are two separate things). It’s important to remember when you are coming up with a logical contrived consequence that it is appropriate for the situation – you would not take recess away because a student forgot a permission slip, because the two (field trips and recess) are not related.

If the goal of education is to get students ready for the real world, then you would want natural consequences to play out whenever possible. In the real world, no one takes your lunch break away for not finishing your work.

Further Reading:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-know-difference-between-punishment-michael-orlans

Punishment vs. Logical Consequences

http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/?q=behavior_plans/classroom_and_group_support/teacher_tools/natural_and_logical_consequences

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