"Withitness"-are you with it?

Many teachers believe that in order to be “effective” you have to give your students the impression that you have “eyes in the back of your head” and see everything they do. Bogus. First of all, I hate to disillusion you, but no one actually has eyes in the back of their head. As a teacher, you will miss things. While it is important to try to be aware of the general going-ons, trying to “catch” every bad thing that your students are doing gives you little time for anything else. How can you effectively helping Susie if you’re spying on Johnny and Alex? And it is spying. Leave them alone, for pity’s sake. Try trusting your students. Constantly watching them gives them the impression that you don’t trust them, and you expect them to fail. What kind of first impression is that? It starts you off on the wrong foot. Would you like it if, the first day of class, your teacher said, “Since I know that you are untrustworthy, I will be working extra hard to catch you in all of your wrong-doings”? Probably not.
Besides, in the end you are just setting yourself up. I don’t generally consider myself a naughty student, but even I could not resist that challenge. Any time a teacher tells me that they WILL see every bad thing I do, I try to get away with more. It becomes a game to see how much students can get away with while the teacher’s back is turned. Even though you, as a teacher, think that you are in complete control of your classroom, really your students are running amok behind your back. They aren’t learning, they’re mocking you.
Some teachers argue that “withitness” is important so that you know who started conflicts. Most likely, you will miss who started it anyways. Have you ever tried asking your students what happened? I know, it takes time because then you actually have to listen to your students. What a concept. By trusting them to tell you what is happening, you have a much greater chance of figuring out what actually happened than you would if you just assumed that, since you are “withit”, you actually caught the beginning. Even if you caught the beginning of it in your classroom, who says that the conflict started in your classroom?
Teachers who need to resort to this tactic are the ones who cannot be bothered with gaining the respect of their students. They will claim that they have it, but intimidation doesn’t equal respect. Their students don’t really respect them. Teachers who gain respect are the ones who care about their students. They are firm without being dictatorial. They “control” classrooms through mutual respect, not fear. Respect must be earned, not forced. Am I “withit”? Heck no, and proud of it.