It's 8 a.m., and everything is not under control

It's the thing most likely to drive a new teacher from the classroom. It's been known to sabotage well-planned lessons and turn teachable moments into a complete waste of time. It's also fingered as a root cause of low test scores, academic underachievement, poor school morale, and violence.

The issue is lack of discipline. Maintaining control of a class has never been easy, but many educators worry that the job is getting harder as children come to school with more emotional baggage, less parental supervision, and a greater sense of entitlement than previous generations.

"Parents today are more career- oriented; often they both work," says Gregory Wayne Hamilton, assistant professor at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York. "That means kids are coming with more needs, sometimes knowing less about relating to adults than they did 30 years ago."

As a result, teaching classroom management has taken on new urgency. Teachers who were once routinely dropped into classrooms with the expectation that experience would be their guide are getting, at least, some preparation.

"In the last five to eight years, I have seen schools of education do a much better job with this," says Theresa Jenkins, elementary school liaison for the Jefferson County school district in Louisville, Ky., and a former principal. "They get students into the classroom much earlier, sometimes starting in their second year, and they stay there for weeks or even months."

In a 1999 national survey of public school students by the Horatio Alger Association, 43 percent of teenagers said they felt that the misbehavior of other students was hurting their learning. That same year, Recruiting New Teachers, in Belmont, Mass., surveyed school districts nationally and found that 83 percent of teachers and administrators said poor classroom-management skills were the most significant barrier to the success of new teachers.

Other surveys in recent years have consistently reported that large numbers of young teachers who abandon the field cite classroom management as one of the top reasons for leaving.

Michael Grinder, founder of ENVoY, a program based in Vancouver, Wash., that teaches class management skills, says kids are either dogs – eager to please – or cats, who are much less accommodating. Teachers, he says, "expect to have a classroom of dogs." But "there are a lot more cats than there used to be."

In addition, "beginning teachers feel more sensitive and afraid" when it comes to discipline, often fearing violence, says Professor Hamilton.

Many educators agree on certain fundamentals for a disciplined classroom, including the need to establish clear expectations and a routine, and to be fair and consistent with rules.

Equally important are fostering a sense of community, helping children feel safe, and teaching engagingly.

All of these things are easier said than done. As a result, education schools are taking such steps as discussing videotaped case studies, offering online support groups, and recruiting experienced teachers to serve as mentors, says Kathleen Fulton of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future in Washington. "This has always been an area of concern, but I think now there are more resources to deal with it, including technology-based resources," she says.

Some districts also call in outside experts. Several years ago, Ruth Sidney Charney helped found The Responsive Classroom, sponsored by the Northeast Foundation for Children in Greenfield, Mass. As a teacher, Ms. Charney became aware that, while many academics were studying curriculum, few looked at classroom management. "A lot of the curriculum was failing because teachers didn't know discipline," she says.

Charney focuses on concrete practices, like a classroom meeting held each morning, to foster intangibles such as a positive sense of community. Teachers should clearly understand, she says, that they are not just teaching academic subjects but are also helping students to develop self-control, cooperation, and responsibility.

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