chool work produced by the student will in time cause the student to develop into an educated person which is the final product of the public school system.
Glasser advocates throwing out the old stimulus-response psychology used by the schools and replacing it with a new psychology called choice theory. Previously, choice theory was known as control theory because it teaches that a person can only control his or her own behavior (Glasser, 1997, p. 599). A person can persuade or influence the behavior of another person but cannot control it. This is contrary to what is taught by stimulus-response theory. Stimulus-response theory states that people are not responsible for their own behavior; a person's behavior is a direct response to an outside stimulus which is beyond that person's control (Glasser, 1996, p. 20). Glasser contends that most people, including teachers and school administrators, believe and practice stimulus-response psychology (Glasser, 1997).
Glasser contends that teachers who rely on the stimulus-response model of behavior engage in coercion or punishment of students when they are unwilling to learn or perform a task (Glasser, 1996, p. 20). A student who resists learning by refusing to complete homework, pay attention, or finish an assignment is automatically given lower grades. The incomplete work is the teacher's stimulus to award a low grade, the response. This sets up an adversarial relationship between the teacher and student which is not conducive to quality learning (Glasser, 1990, p. 428). The greater the discord between teacher and student the greater the discrepancy between the quality of work the student is capable of producing and what is actually
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