You are a university graduate - you need to be able to distinguish between "Communism" - the economic theory of Marx and Thomas Paine and Israeli kibbutzim, and "State Socialism" - the politico-economic structure of Lenin and Mao, and "Democratic Socialism" - the communalism of the Catholic Church and modern Europe, and "Totalitarism" - the political system which seeks heavy control over human thought and private behavior.

It is funny, the kind of conversation you had with your co-teacher and your room-mate is so absolutely, uniquely American. It could not happen among people educated anywhere else in the world.

So please understand - your doughnut decision had nothing to do with either democracy or socialism. The question comes up because school is totalitarian. If the students had been asked to decide how to divide up the treats, there'd be reasons to raise some of these concerns. If you are deciding, you are acting as Stalin.

i think the classroom has to be a mix of things. I've observed that kids need structure from adults. If my students had been asked to decide, they would have grabbed the box of donuts, and donuts would have been thrown all over the room. the question I was dealing with is group rewards, vs. individual rewards, or creating a combination of the 2. There is very little that is totalitarian about my teaching style by the simple fact that I am highly respectful of my students, but I am not in a situation where my students can succeed academically if given complete choice.

This blog is great! I've read many posts on here and have enjoyed the content. I recommend reading some of the other posts by this author. good post!

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Whats up? It's Tom, love your style. Come get some ringtones on our new blog and hear some music. Xanga supported.

could you rishk them throwing the donuts two times? Three times? Five dozen times? I think that's the challenge. We know that learning comes primarily through low-cost failure - you do something, it doesn't work but you are not hurt, you try again. The problem with the whole idea of the classroom, with the whole idea of the teacher, is the inherent impatience and unwillingness to allow true student failure - to embrace that failure in a way that leads slowly to success.

Think of it this way, if you have a one-year old who throws food, do you stop giving him/her food? Of course not. If your Little League kid strikes out in practice do you stop pitching to him? No, you throw him hundreds of pitches. Schools never do this. They are scared to death of kids making the wrong choices. But by interfering with the wrong choices kids are prevented from learning how to make choices.

Kids hitting each other, hurting each other - that requires concern and intervention - destroying donuts? It might have been the best lesson you ever presented.