Discipline

I think one of the more interesting and less controversial topics in education is

discipline. There are really two questions at play here: one, to what extent
should teachers be expected to discipline and raise your kid, and two, what kind
of disciplinary measures should be used.

Looking at the first question,

there is a few perspectives that
exist. One, teachers should not
be forced or expected to raise
our kids. They are here to teach
them, and simply are not paid
enough to teach children how to
behave. That should be the
parent’s job, to ensure that their
children are well-behaved so that
the teacher can then do their job
and teach the kids without too many interruptions or disruptions. Now the
reasons that parents are sometimes lacking in this field is a whole ‘nother issue,
but that is the first perspective. The opposite to that would then be that of course
teachers should be disciplining our kids. They have them for 7-8 hours a day,
maybe even more, which is arguable more time then their parents get with them
a day. Also, school is a major place where socialization happens, and where kids
get to regularly interact with others. Issues are going to come up that simply
wouldn’t happen at a home setting, which is where teachers are expected to step
in. The middle ground perspective looks something like teachers should call out
bad behavior, or at least bring it to the attention of the kids parents, but the
teacher should only interfere as much as needed to ensure a proper learning
environment and that the parents know.

So then the second question, what disciplinary measures should be used? Well
on the extreme end of punishments we have suspension and expulsion, which
honestly have never made too much sense to me. We punish kids who
misbehave in school by taking them out of school? It only limits their education
further, makes them upset at the system, and probably makes them happy
because of course they don’t want to be in school. Some kids might even brag
about getting suspended. And there is also the issue that kids who getting
suspended or expelled are more likely to get involved in the juvenile justice
system. Many people are now arguing for negative forms of punishment by
extremely limited, and rather use methods of counseling and restorative justice
practices.

How our kids are

disciplined in school is a
major concern that every
parent should have a say
in. Ultimately, I believe
it falls more on the
parent than the teacher,
and that a lot of parents
are parenting wrong
these days, but that is an
issue of technology,
money shortages, and
much more. There is no simple fix, but we need to start having these
conversations.