Acting out, fighting, racial and other slurs, bullying, willful disruption of learning. Many teachers are faced with problem behaviors like these at one time or another: some face them virtually every day. And as every teacher knows, the educational costs of these behaviors can be tremendous.

Debby Collins, principal of the K-5 Plymouth School in Monrovia, CA, says that until recently most of her staff believed lack of discipline was a serious impediment to learning in their classrooms. Collins recalls several teachers' comments:

• "Kids don't know how to cooperate or act nicely toward each other."
• "There is far too much acting-out behavior."
• "What's killing us, keeping us from being the best we can be, is a lack of discipline."