Imagine you’re in your class, and a kid comes in with a hat on.
You tell him to take it off, and he does.
You begin teaching, and after some time you notice he’s put his hat back on.
You ask him to take his had back off, and he escalates the situation, cussing under his breath.
What do you do?
Do any of these come to mind?
When it comes to disciplining students, teachers are winging it. Most teachers don’t receive formal training on how to properly discipline their students.
Experts agree that the way we discipline is not only ineffective, it’s actively messing kids up.
Over the past few decades, suspension has become the number one way to discipline non-compliant students. However, suspension is not the only issue.
Our society gives tougher punishments to black and Latino students, no matter what the age. Racism is the problem, not just suspension.
Data from Texas showed that from 7th grade to 12th grade, black and Latinos were twice as likely to receive an out of school suspension than white peers for their first offence.
83% of African-American boys were suspended at least once from 7th to 12th grade. Most of these suspensions were for minor things like disrespect, insubordination, and willful defiance…. Kind of like that kid who wouldn’t take his hat off.
Looking nationally, black children make up 18% of preschools, but 47% preschool children suspended more than once.
Data showed that kids suspended were much more likely to be arrested outside of school and 3 times as likely to come in contact with the juvenile justice system.
There’s a new name for this phenomenon. School to Prison Pipeline.
So how do we discipline differently?
Maybe charter schools with long days, strict, no tolerance policies, orderly and hyper vigilant?
Or is this system just determined by our fear?
What about the “Restorative Justice” system- inspired by the criminal justice system when everyone sits down and talks about incidents to restore the harm done by the crime?
But risk being ineffective in “real world situations”?
What is our job as teachers? What is the role of punishment?
Does it teach self control?
To get kids to be quiet so learning can happen?
To prepare children to function as adults in the world?
To teach them to avoid being arrested?
And if you want to know if it’s working, you need to know what your are going for right?
Every year, teachers will have 30 to 200 students and many will be disciplined. Getting it wrong, even just once, can be haunting.
