Bandstra, Alan. Beyond Control: Heart-Centered Classroom Climate and Discipline. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt College Press, 2014.

“Finally, the spirit behind our actions and words is closely tied to our beliefs and hopes.” (Preface, iv)

In Beyond Control, Alan Bandstra writes in a style that is similar to an engaging memoir. Rather than taking the textbook approach of citing constant references to the work of others, the author takes us on a journey of his life as a teacher—warts and all. As he does so, he engages and enlarges perspectives on a Christian approach to the topic of discipline in the classroom. Bandstra draws significant attention to the quote above as we journey with him through the pages of this book.

Engaging the inescapable themes of classroom climate, community, and grace, Bandstra has presented not simply a different kind of discipline or classroom management strategy, but a different kind of teacher. Bandstra considers a Christian “climate” in which the virtues of the heart, the cultivation of community, and the grace of discipline become present in the daily service of the teacher. It soon becomes evident that being present is more than allegiance to a good idea or high aspirations in a room with desks, chairs, and students in it. It begins with an examined attitudinal stance, and it doesn’t matter where you teach, be it public or private.

Bandstra’s book is presented in three parts. In part 1 of the book, Bandstra begins by exploring the negative aspects of reward and punishment as these would apply to a change of heart, or a significant reason to learn. He frames aspects of reward and punishment as forms of manipulation that are unable to accomplish two desired ends. First, reward or punishment does not provide a reason to learn that is intrinsically motivating, and second, such manipulation generates a pattern of treating students like pets to be rewarded or punished. In effect, manipulation results in an alternate end—behavioristic classroom management. In so doing, manipulation (whether positive or negative) overlooks personal, heart-centered goals for human flourishing.

Broken humans cannot be “fixed” by rules. Rules make no one righteous. Bandstra suggests instructional teaching is more helpful than manipulation. He presents a teaching model for discipline that “disciples students.” This model assists students in seeing the consequences of their actions, and provides them with the opportunity to change their behaviors. The model emerges from a classroom climate of care, where gentle but honest correction occurs. Students focus on what they need to know within natural consequences of life rather than what they deserve for flawed and broken behavior. However, Bandstra is clear in saying no teacher can change a student’s heart. His examples from experience reinforce this well.

Part 2 of the book stresses that no part of teaching is more important than the positive relationships between the teacher and the students. This is the foundation for his view of heart-centered teaching. This view requires the teacher to move past the idea of being popular with students—a pitfall of the educational life, especially as this would apply to early career teaching.  It also requires not viewing students as simply behavioral labels, but instead making meaningful connections with them as people. In essence, it is the proximal distance of availability to the teacher and reality of the worth of learning that provide a space for meaningful learning to occur; the absence of these aspects provide barriers teachers do not often recognize. Inquiry learning, collaborative learning, and shared praxis all provide engaging variety in teaching, and a way of accessing authentic student voice, but the tone of the teacher in providing a learning atmosphere is still essential in connecting students with their learning. A collaborative atmosphere needs to take precedence in order for collaborative learning to occur as a process of engagement in the classroom.

Part 3, heart-centered discipline, begins with a well-formed distinction between reactive and redirective discipline. Reactive discipline seeks to eliminate misbehavior in the present, while redirective discipline encourages right behavior that seeks a heart change to alter behavior in the future (77). The teacher’s heart must recall that grace is what students need, despite what they deserve. But most important of all: grace and discipline must be balanced.

Overall, my reading of the first half of the text did not engage me as much as the second half. This may be because as an experienced teacher, Bandstra’s examples of constructive pedagogy—such as inquiry learning, collaborative learning, shared praxis—seem to me old issues wrapped in new cloth. Mature experience does educate well about the need for care and the needs of our students. In contemplating this work, I wondered what the current creep of technology as a learning tool in the classroom would add to the conversation—would it diminish or extend opportunity for the life in the classroom that Bandstra desires to create? On that issue the book is mute. But then again, it is the teacher that teaches, not the tools, so this may be a minor point to his goals. But I think not. A new distraction is looming, one that led Dr. Stephen Hawking to remark on the CBC last week, despite his obvious reliance on it, that technology has gone too far, and threatens our personhood and what it means to be human. <cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/stephen-hawking-s-warning-on-artificial-intelligence-long-way-off-1.2860690>

In summary, I highly recommend this book to teachers (especially new ones) who wish to deeply consider classroom management in all of its philosophical and faith-centered aspects. It is an easy read, full of practical ideas and conversations surrounding how teachers spend their days and engage their students. Thankfully, it does not minimize or cloud over the difficulty of the task of creating a meaningful learning environment where true flourishing of each member of the learning community can occur. Overall, as educators who serve the living God, we are reminded to move from caring about behavior to caring about the heart that generates it.

Christina Belcher is professor of education at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario.