Old Fashioned Detention

What should the consequences be?

In a thread on Jotting in Purple, which you should read, I was asked what I think the consequences should be for students who disrupt class so that no one can teach and no one can learn.

My answer is simple, though I have no power to make it happen.

Old fashioned detention.

Not suspension, which is a vacation for these kids and puts them right back in the streets where they learn bad behavior.

Not cancelling recess. Certainly not making teachers sit with them through our lunch and prep, which just punishes us for trying to enforce the rules.

No, good old fashioned detention. In a room in the school. They should go there immediately when they are acting up and disrupting. What would be best would be if there were separate rooms because the key is to keep the kids separate from each other. As long as they are in the same room, they will laugh and cut up and have a grand old time. No punishment at all. Being alone with nothing but their schoolwork would do just fine.

No computers, phones, iPads. No music. No other kids. No one to talk to. They can take their school work and do the work they were supposed to be doing in class.

This may not sound bad at all to those of you who were basically well behaved kids and were not completely allergic to work. But the kids I work with (the ones who disrupt, not the good ones) a) hate to do the work b) really want to spend all their time socializing with each other c) almost physically can not stop talking.

Isn’t it funny how what kids from a functional background would consider studying: being alone with no distractions and doing schoolwork - would be very, very unpleasant for the kids I have always taught?

The key is to remove them IMMEDIATELY from the classroom. That makes it clear that the others will be protected and that they will be able to learn. The number of times per day that I have to interrupt attempting to teach or help a student or group of students in order to stop some kids from running, hitting each other, turning over furniture, or running out of the classroom is many, many times an hour. They are wasting their classmates’ educational time. I have kids who want to learn, but it is sometimes so loud that they can not hear me even if I am right next to them. I had to have a girl step outside the room with me for a moment so I could hear and answer her question a few days ago.

Punishment, especially separation from the scene, must be immediate. No arguing, no time to disrupt more or drag other kids down. Out, now. To a secure location, alone.

If you think that removing disruptive, even dangerous kids from a classroom and putting them in a place where they are safe and it is quiet, with their schoolwork for company and entertainment, then you are a woke idiot and I have no clue why you are reading me. You definitely have never tried to teach in an urban school.

Remove the burden from teachers and let us teach. I just wanted to teach! I wanted to help kids, especially kids who are struggling with all the downstream effects of poverty, to learn and grow and develop their potential! I wanted to create engaging assignments and make them feel their opinions were valued! I’ve been teaching for four years now (with a gap between them) and it’s only gotten worse. The grip of technology, the long term effects of the pandemic lock down (18 months the kids I teach now were out of school) and the horror that social media inflicts on our society make it impossible. I spend much more time managing behavior than actually teaching.

So when I was asked if I’ve thought about what I would do, the answer is yes. I know exactly how to impose real consequences that would get the kids’ attention but that are not cruel or traumatizing.

Make them sit quietly alone. If they want to be entertained, try doing the schoolwork. Or just sit there and think. Either way, they are out of the classroom and unable to do what they enjoy, which is make a great deal of noise and fight or play fight with their friends.

No more kids engaging in truly obscene conversations while others are trying to do the work. No more kids throwing chairs and knocking each other onto the floor. No more teachers losing their voices because we have to yell to even be heard. No more pointless write ups.

And while we’re here, let’s teach them to stop talking back to teachers and administrators. Punish the disrespect, the calling teachers unprintable things. We do them a terrible disservice by letting them get away with this. How will they ever hold down a job if they don’t know how to respect those in authority?

Short answer: they won’t.

I want my students to succeed. I want them to have jobs and provide for their eventual families, not end up in jail, dead, or dependent on a welfare state that is rapidly going away.

What we are doing is not preparing them for the life ahead.

On a related note, I think that starting in middle school the ones who can not behave and perform academically should start getting job training and spending part of the day at school actually working. Right now a lot of public school ends up being a state subsidized babysitting service because the kids don’t care and the teachers are not allowed to enforce meaningful consequences. So put them to work, learning things that they can use when they need to get a job. Learning cooking, carpentry, even trades can start in middle school.

Yet they must learn to read, write and do math. They must learn the basics of history and civics. For that, they must learn to sit still and be quiet.

Until our public schools can teach kids to sit still, be quiet, and obey teachers, we are largely wasting our time and taxpayer dollars.

Give the kids the discipline they need to bloom!