Problem:
Briefly respond to the suggestions Kohn makes regarding alternatives to assigning or even creating classroom rules. Consider that Kohn asserts that approaches in which students engage in "creating" classroom rules often "foster the appearance of participation in order to secure compliance" (para 7). Further, Kohn observes:
From a constructivist perspective, the very idea of rules may be troubling. Teachers who have taken the important step of inviting students to help make up the rules would do well to question the value of generating a list of behavioral particulars - for at least three reasons. First of all, rules turn children into lawyers, scanning for loopholes and caveats, narrowing the discussion to technicalities when a problem occurs....Second, rules turn teachers into policemen, a role utterly at odds with being facilitators of learning....Third, rules usually enfold within them a punitive consequence for breaking them. The result is that we are thrown back into doing things to students rather than working with them to solve problems. The more "behavioral" or "black-and-white" the rule, the more likely it is that all these things will happen. (para 10 - 14)