A book review of:
The Taming of the Crew: Working Successfully with Difficult Students
by Brian D. Mendler
The Teacher Learning Center
Item #1860
Reviewed by: Mark Freado
The Taming of the Crew is a relatively small and very readable book. Written in the style of other publications from Discipline Associates, the book presents short chapters on practical topics in education. The target audience is clearly classroom teachers but the topics and ideas presented can be utilized in a variety of disciplines.
The book begins by providing support for the power of relationships and proposes a variety of ways to express interest in students in the classroom and in the community. Among the suggestions provided are formulas such as "Hammer, Hammer, Hammer, Hug" and "PEP, privacy, eye-contact and proximity."
He does very nice work in the second chapter titled "Fair vs. Equal," a topic that creates anxiety in teachers. It addresses the struggle with one size fits all approaches to discipline and includes encouragement for support from administrators. Reflecting on experience and anticipating questions, Mr. Mendler provides suggestions in the form of "Eighteen Ways to Say the Same Thing," and "Seventeen Phrases to Make this Concept Work for Parents."
The following three chapters address concerns about getting students to complete their schoolwork, creative strategies and motivational tips, and quiz and test strategies to use immediately. His use of phrases like "The Retail Mindset" and "Blue Light Special," provides scripts to help remember stragegies. In the test chapter he uses ideas from the popular game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and offers an approach called "Two Tests, One Pick" to help students approach testing with more anticipation than anxiety.
In chapters addressing values and rules, consequences and punishment he provides pratical suggestions for how to engage students in the processes of setting standards in the classroom and ideas for helping teachers manage discipline. Bringing the ideas from earlier in the book forward Mr. Mendler discusses how to let detention include relationships and attention to relevant school work. In the chapter on consequences and discipline he proposes a simple and significant gesture to use when students have to be suspended; call them. There are professionals throughout our fields that think about and understand the importance of letting youth know that even though they can't be with us that we are thinking about them and looking forward to their return. The proportion of people and programs that do that is small and I think this is one of the best suggestions in the book.
Other topics the book covers include prevention of bullying, using incentives, groups, transitions, causes of behavior and power struggles. There are numerous references to books already in the field that were written by Alan Mendler, his father, and Rick Curwin. Both of the latter are recipients of the Spirit of Crazy Horse Award by Reclaiming Youth International and their books are also available in our bookstore. While the influence of his mentors is clear, this book offers practical insights from Brian Mendler's own experience as a kid in trouble in school and as a teacher. Each chapter ends with a "Concluding Chapter Thought" that ties the ideas in that section together in a few sentences. Readers will find that helpful for closure and also as a preview of what they might find in the chapter.
For our colleagues who are interested in resources that are easily accessible, short on theory, long on action steps and suggestions, and material that will provoke their own creative thinking, this will be a very useful book. Some may read it and think it is too simplistic or believe that they already do all these things. Even for them, this book provides easy opportunities to test the power of simple things or to compare their practices with another colleague's for validation.
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