Jim Dixon -

In schools, the term 'inappropriate' has replaced 'bad' to describe a student's anti-social behaviour. Its not always possible to go into great detail about why the behaviour is unacceptable but at the same time you need to tell the student to 'knock it off' in a way that does not indicate that the student is a 'bad' person.

It took me awhile to get used to it but students seem to know that while it may be appropriate behaviour at home or with peers, it is inappropriate classroom behaviour. Given the time, a teacher can go into more detail and certainly will if the behaviour persists but as an 'off-the-cuff-comment' it seems to do the trick. At least its better than telling a student that the behaviour is 'bad'.

What's the alternative?