Paul Dix > Quotes

“Services isolated on business logic can share data sources with other systems.”
― Paul Dix

“However, for the purposes of migrating existing Rails applications to services, the shared database approach may be necessary in the early stages.”
― Paul Dix

“When learners are struggling they need support, not red lines and stern faces. They don’t need the dark suits of doom, but rather a learning coach, detached from any process, to support, mentor and guide. (A problem solver, not a process monkey, remember?) A skilled, empathetic specialist who can work with the learner to meet their immediate needs and stem the flow of poor conduct.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“You create a file called user.rb in the /models directory:”
― Paul Dix

“for the service in spec/service_spec.rb, you add another describe block:”
― Paul Dix

“Many programmers would prefer to mock in their client library specs, but doing so could result in the service and client passing all specs with hidden failures.”
― Paul Dix

“For invalid user name and password combinations, the service should return a 400 HTTP status code, which means that the server received a “bad request.” The service could also use the 401 (“unauthorized”) response code, but that code specifies that authentication credentials need to be in the request header, which is not quite what is required.”
― Paul Dix

“Putting the punishment away and shifting to support mode is a key skill of an emotionally consistent teacher. You cannot regulate with sanctions, and trying to regulate with rewards has a bad payback.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“Lip service is always the enemy of commitment in any conversation.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“There are no overnight transformations in education, but there are miracles.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“Behaviour management is a team sport. It needs a team discipline, ethos and look. To get the behaviour you want there can be no gaps between the adults on what matters. It is this consistency that is most important.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“The advertising of poor behaviour doesn’t help, but routinely advertising the behaviour that you do want does.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“Expecting restorative meetings to be a quick fix. It takes time for pupils to be able to answer questions fully and reflect properly. It takes time to change behaviour. Persist and gradually trust is built, conscience is developed and everyone is more aware of their behaviour.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“schools that take on too much too quickly make slow progress.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“Do you remember yesterday/ last week when you helped me tidy up/led the group/gave me that excellent homework? Remember mum’s face when she got the note? That is the person I know, that is the Chelsea I need to see today.’ This is the key to the scripted response.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“What should we do to put things right?”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“Recognition is a guaranteed relationship builder. Rewards are hit or miss.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“Too many adults try to teach during an escalating confrontation, so by the time the teachable moment comes they have walked away or become immersed in the fog of the argument.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“To paraphrase Robert Nesta Marley, one good thing about kindness is that, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“arrived at the school expecting to be greeted by the head, or perhaps his PA or maybe a deputy, but on signing in I was presented with two learners, aged 12 and 15. They explained that they would be conducting the tour and proceeded to lead the best tour of a school I have ever had.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“The shift in culture and climate comes from adults changing their behaviour and sustaining that change.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“Names on the board, children sitting in corridors, dunce hats and public shaming in assembly all sought to change behaviour by raw embarrassment.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“It was the rule about … (lining up/staying on task/bringing military hardware into school) that you broke. You have chosen to … (move to the back/catch up with your work at lunchtime/ speak to the man from Scotland Yard). Do you remember last week when you … (arrived on time every day/got that positive note/received the Nobel Prize)? That is who I need to see today … Thank you for listening. (Then give the child some ‘take up’ time.)”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“But why crush behaviours with punishment when you can grow them with love? Visible consistency with visible kindness allows exceptional behaviour to flourish.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“Just like a good restorative meeting, the best coaching conversations are not held interview-style across a desk.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“Make it simple, clear and coherent. #LessIsMore Strip out the tariffs and encourage problem solvers, not process monkeys. Agree visible consistencies that everyone commits to every day. Make it easy for adults and children to recognise good behaviour. Make emotional acceleration for adults unacceptable. Stay hard and fast to just three rules. Enshrine consistency in a single A4 collaborative agreement. Encourage restorative conversations. Replace detention for lack of work with impositions. Keep the time between action and consequence as short as possible.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“Leading a school through a change in policy and practice is not a job to be rushed. It requires a great plan, patience and a relentlessness that signals to everyone that you are not changing course.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“self-supporting groups just try to get better at their work.”
― Paul Dix, After The Adults Change: Achievable behaviour nirvana

“It is when people can’t control their own emotions that they start trying to control the behaviour of others.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour

“I would lay good money that more than 80% of the children in there have additional needs. Some will have a diagnosed special educational need or disability, others will be struggling with hidden needs that are all too obvious to those who work with them every day: trauma, anxiety, attachment, grief or plain old-fashioned neglect. The sins of the adult world are soaked up by a minority of children. Then we stick them in a booth and call it education.”
― Paul Dix, When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour