Could Discipline, Structure, Independence, and Creativity Coexist?

Recently I've been thinking a lot about childrens' need for structure; structures allow kids to know if they're doing well in class; it also lets students know what to expect - it makes class feel safer and more predictable. Through structures, kids become "cultured" (they learn what behaviors are acceptable or not).

Yet, I also read "School as the Product of the Adult Fantasy of a World Without Children" (from I'm Only Bleeding, Alan A. Block), which describes how education smothers the imaginative, playful aspect of childhood. This goes hand in hand with one of my favorite books, The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), which juxtaposes the perspective of the adult (rigid, calculated, stressed) with the perspective of the child (innocent, hopeful, fresh). While in graduate school with no real teaching experience, I veered on the side of emphasizing creativity/free-thought/less-structured (somewhat idealistic, to say the least) - I dreamed of leading classes based on open-projects and Socratic seminars (the language barrier does not help in this area, haha).

However, at this point in time, I feel that I'm beginning to see the need for MORE structure: I have encountered an episode where I was stressed and appalled by the way my middle school students behaved (I was supervising them when they had some free-time; it was like a battle royale - kids yelling at each other, then screaming louder to try getting their way, lots of pushing and shoving, defacing property that isn't theirs, etc.); this was weeks after "telling" them that they are expected to respect the teacher, the space, and their peers.

Respect, as most of the "foreign teachers" know it, does not seem to exist in these students' lives.

As we're preparing our students for a Western-style education--and as I have reflected with countless colleagues--these students do not seem capable of having free-time without unleashing pandemonium. In other words, they NEED structure to keep them in place and for them to channel their creativity and energies in more productive ways. For example I had to teach a lesson to my 7th graders on how to rehearse (step by step!) because they did not know how to do it on their own; when left on their own, they goofed off.

Perhaps this is where we could apply the concept of Parker Palmer's paradox (The Courage to Teach): there are many situations where two seemingly opposite sides exist. Structure is necessary, but it is meaningless without the creative/free component (freedom within structure).

Could Discipline, Structure, Independence, and Creativity Coexist? Yes - in fact, they must!