There is a moment when classroom behavior always gets worse.
It is a moment that is entirely controlled by the teacher. Yet, few teachers are aware of it. The moment consists of something the teacher does—or, more accurately, doesn’t do.
It also typically gets repeated again and again, resulting in a continuous drop in politeness, respect, and rule-following.
What is it?
It’s when the teacher verbalizes an expectation, but doesn’t ensure that it’s followed. A simple example would be explaining to students how you want them to take out and ready their laptops, but then ignoring its poor execution.
This is so profoundly detrimental because it communicates to students that you don’t mean what you say. You’ve demonstrated that your expectations are mere suggestions and thus your words don’t matter.
Furthermore, a lack of follow through destroys their trust in you.
Saying one thing and doing another is in the eyes of your students akin to lying. Hence, everything you say—including during your lessons—is called into question.
The natural result is that you’re not taken seriously. You’re viewed as weak-kneed, malleable, and unimportant. In today’s world especially, students dismiss such teachers without a glance back.
And when you don’t matter, neither do your rules, policies, and procedures. Even your most rudimentary directions are tainted by your lack of follow through.
So what’s the solution?
The solution is that everything you say must be backed by demonstrative action. You can never let anything go. It all matters.
If you teach your students how to dismiss from your classroom, for example, but don’t require that it’s done correctly, then you lose another layer of control.
Action means that you’re not going to allow your students to ignore or perform poorly any expectation, direction, or routine. This may involve enforcing consequences via your classroom management plan for individual students.
It may involve reteaching and redoing. It may involve tightening freedoms and dismissing students only a few at a time until they meet your expectations.
In this day and age, without consistent, detailed accountability, oversight, and action, all hope is lost. Misbehavior and malaise will sully every area of learning.
But once you stand your ground, once you hold unyielding and honorable to the expectations and boundaries you know are best for your students, the tide will turn.
Behavior will improve.
And your students will finally regard you as a leader worth listening to.
PS – This week’s YouTube video is The Shift That Changes Everything in Your Classroom. It’s an absolute game-changer for every working teacher.
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The article makes a sharp and valuable point: a teacher’s credibility hinges on follow-through. The central insight, that verbally stating an expectation without ensuring it’s met silently teaches students that words don’t matter, is both simple and profound. Many classroom management issues do spiral from this exact, often unconscious, moment of inaction.
The article’s tone is quite absolute (“never let anything go,” “all hope is lost” without constant accountability). In practice, wise teachers do pick their battles and sometimes overlook minor infractions to preserve momentum. Still, the core message holds: consistency builds trust, and trust is the foundation of respect. A useful, if intense, reminder for any teacher feeling their authority slip.
This is a great article and great reminder about following through.
I still have a question about students that don’t do their work, though. In previous articles, you have mentioned to just “let the student fail” if they can’t be bothered doing their work, and it seems like you have mentioned not administering any consequences except for the natural ones. However, if they are told to do their work and then they are not working, where is the line between letting a natural consequence occur vs. administering a consequence for not following the given directions?
Hi Laura,
Your classroom management plan must be for misbehavior/disruption/interference only. It’s to protect learning, not force it. This is critical and a topic I’ll cover again soon.
I agree this is a crucial topic to discuss! In one sense not following a directive is insubordinate (punishable) but at the same time my main objective is the preservation of the learning environment, so sit there if you want to…. Man, at almost 20 years in I still have lots to learn and much room to improve.