Well Worth Reposting

Reprinted from Larry Ferlazzo's Blog

Many teachers know that an effective classroom management move to turn a disruptive student into an ally is by giving him/her responsibilities in the classroom — tutoring another student, offering them a key classroom job, etc.

I knew it, and have used it, but didn’t know until recently that an actual psychological finding explains why this strategy works. It’s called “The Benjamin Franklin Effect”:

You grow to like people for whom you do nice things and hate people you harm.

Here’s the story about the “effect’s” origins:

In his autobiography, Franklin explains how he dealt with the animosity of a rival legislator when he served in the Pennsylvania legislature in the 18th Century

“Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return’d it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death.”