Wednesday, December 26, 2018

School Discipline

While reading yet another article about how schools need to have alternative methods of dealing with students who don't follow reasonable rules, I came across this thought:
School leaders spoke about the need to change the cultural norms in schools from punitive to positive.
Why don't we try changing cultural/community norms from ones that don't value education, don't value following rules, and don't lead to success in our country's larger culture, to norms that do?  An idea so crazy it just might work.

3 comments:

David said...

I have great classroom discipline and rarely have to discipline students. 99% of kids in my opinion want to learn and they do that in my class. However, there’s always that 1% or 2 kids every year that cause the most problems and just don’t care about behaving in the classroom.

One of my admins asked one of the worst students in the school why do you behave in david’s class but nowhere else. Her response was that he shows me respect and teaches me interesting stuff; he also disciplines me when I do something wrong but not in a harsh way.

Kids want discipline in the classroom; they want structure; they want to enjoy school.
However schools are too busy coddling kids and moving kids along.
My feeling is that if you sent those misbehaving kids a lesson (military school; holding them back a grade; giving them consequences like detention) along with showing them respect, those kids will get in line.

Darren said...

David: and those who don't? Those that cannot or will not behave? I say remove them to what we used to call "opportunity school". Don't allow them to limit someone else's education.

But I agree that mutual respect is a key component of classroom management.

Unknown said...

For that 1% that won't behave, send them to a special school.

If some of these parents could actually see how much these troublesome kids actually ruin the education of their kid, there would be a lot of lawsuits. Schools just usually put the kid (troublesome or behaving) into another class at the same school instead of dealing with the actual issue of the misbehaving kid. Send them to another school or give them serious consequences.