Form two straight lines. Silence before we start

This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to theechidna.com.au

You know something is wrong when what seems obvious to you is hailed as a revelatory moment in education.

Recent stories about teachers getting students to line up in an orderly fashion before entering a classroom - and to sit in silence once in there - laud a "new" method in classroom management which is getting results.

The kids, we're told, are more focused, less disruptive and are achieving higher marks.

Who would have thought it?

That a little discipline, boundary setting, social order and plain old manners could bear academic fruit. It seems bleedingly obvious to me, as someone whose schooling involved strict rules and deference to adults, but a whole generation of younger teachers is only now discovering that it works.

Cast my mind back all those decades and some of the best teachers were also the strictest. They demanded pupils form straight lines before entering the classroom. They jumped on disruption instantly. Firm but fair, they knew how to reward our lightbulb moments of understanding with praise - not effusive but enough to encourage us to aim higher. We learnt what they taught.

The threat of detention - from confinement at lunchtime to being held back after school, and at worst Saturday morning - helped curb adolescent impulses of rebellion and silliness.

All these decades later, I can't help but chuckle as a new generation of teachers begins to appreciate the benefits of classroom discipline. This after letting it slide for so many years.

Last year, a report found that the disciplinary climate in Australian schools was among the least favourable in OECD countries.

But it's not just teachers tiring of the poor classroom behaviour. The students who want to learn aren't happy about it either.

And education experts are now warning about hiding poor student behaviour behind a mental health smokescreen when the real issue is that troublesome kids are just rotten because boundaries have not been set. Not by the parents and not by the teachers.

That's not to say the teachers are entirely at fault. Many complain that they haven't been taught how to manage unruly behaviour, with too much emphasis on education theory rather than practice.

The universities are finally catching up, with classroom management becoming a compulsory part of teacher training from the end of next year. That will go some way to making the classroom a better environment.

But the other part of the equation - having parents set boundaries and good examples by their own behaviour - is a whole other matter.

PS: Thanks to Steve and Jenna for stepping into the burrow while I was deep in South-East Asia on shore excursions. And thanks to you readers, who kept your comments coming throughout the voyage.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Was classroom disruption a problem when you were at school? How did your teachers impose discipline? Have we lost the ability to set boundaries for our children? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- The Albanese government's attempt to rush through controversial legislation to allow the deportation of non-citizens has failed. The Coalition is removing support and the non-government parties are combining to refer Labor's move to a weeks-long Senate committee process.

- The man who survived a brush with death in the Tasman Bridge collapse nearly 50 years ago says the latest bridge tragedy in the US demonstrates the need to halt traffic over bridges as ships sail underneath. Frank Manley and his family were driving in the Holden Monaro pictured in famous photographs dangling off the edge of the collapsed Tasman Bridge at Hobart in 1975.

- Hundreds of people have been involved in a series of violent brawls in Alice Springs as familial tensions escalate after the death of a teenager. Chaos descended on the Red Centre on Tuesday afternoon when up to 70 people attacked the local pub, the Todd Tavern.

THEY SAID IT: "Discipline is doing what you really don't want to do so you can do what you really want to do." - Jeff Fisher

YOU SAID IT: Steve Evans wrote of the joyful melancholy of autumn, a season which ought to be celebrated, not mourned.

Bonnie writes: "Living in the southern corner of the Western Australian coastline, autumn is my favourite time of the year. We are no longer blasted by dry hot easterlies, or gale force sou-westerlies. The air is cool and still and mostly bright. It actually feels nice for the sun to hit your face or shoulder and remind you there is still warmth there."

Also from WA, Stephanie welcomes every season: "After 45 years living in cold, wet, dreary, grey England, anything is an improvement. Spring and autumn are probably my favourites but all of the seasons bring me joy. Winter has the added bonus of me heading into the forest behind our property to exercise my unhealthy relationship with my chainsaw collecting firewood to keep me warm."

"Ah, summer," writes Tony, "that season when the arthritic bones hurt a lot less. Unfortunately I live in Ballarat where summer is all but non-existent! How I long to be back where it's warm so I don't hurt."

Bonnie sees it differently: "I am so enjoying the glorious autumn weather already! I have MS and my body doesn't function well when my core temperature rises, so autumn and winter are my happy seasons. I adore both - the colder the better."