I am all for getting to the root of some of our kids problems. One of the first things I wrote when I started writing about education issues nearly 8 years ago was that we needed more mental health counselors and social workers in our schools because often why a child acts up or does not try in school has nothing to do with school. Furthermore I even think a few of our teachers need to be educated on the difference between a kid being a kid and a kid being defiant and disrespectful.
All that being said, I believe kids must get consequences for their bad behavior, we don't have to be cruel and we may have to be creative but they need meaningful consequences if for no other reason than to show the rest of our students that acting up, being defiant, disrespectful and or violet is unacceptable.
Vitti's restorative justice concept like several of his other ideas and initiatives might sound good, it's implementation however has been dreadful and please don't take my word for it, talk to teachers how they think discipline is going.
The New York Post today has a massive article detailing the failures of restorative justice programs.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/14/politicians-are-making-schools-less-safe-and-ruining-education-for-everyone/
Discipline can be hard I get it, but it is important too. At the end of the day I think it would be great if all kids learned the quadratic formula, about photosynthesis and how to properly conjugate verbs but what is paramount that they learn is that there are consequences for bad behavior and it's better they learn it in school before they learn it in the street.
Discipline is hard, I get it, but does Vitti?
All that being said, I believe kids must get consequences for their bad behavior, we don't have to be cruel and we may have to be creative but they need meaningful consequences if for no other reason than to show the rest of our students that acting up, being defiant, disrespectful and or violet is unacceptable.
Vitti's restorative justice concept like several of his other ideas and initiatives might sound good, it's implementation however has been dreadful and please don't take my word for it, talk to teachers how they think discipline is going.
The New York Post today has a massive article detailing the failures of restorative justice programs.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/14/politicians-are-making-schools-less-safe-and-ruining-education-for-everyone/
Discipline can be hard I get it, but it is important too. At the end of the day I think it would be great if all kids learned the quadratic formula, about photosynthesis and how to properly conjugate verbs but what is paramount that they learn is that there are consequences for bad behavior and it's better they learn it in school before they learn it in the street.
Discipline is hard, I get it, but does Vitti?
It's just another way of killing public education.
ReplyDeleteThey still haven't "set up" restorative justice at my school and I have never had a student/teacher/administrator conference either, so nothing is being done about referrals. What is restorative justice? Saying you're sorry? Here's what a secondary student can do and expect, if there were any consequences:
Mon - arrive tardy - warning
Tues - disrupt class - have conference with teacher and adminstrator
Weds - use profanity - have conference with teacher and administrator
Thurs - skip class - have a conference with teacher and administrator
Fri - use phone in class - lose phone for the day
Mon - misbehave on bus - have conference with administrator
Tues - bring tobacco - referred to guidance
Weds - engage in a dispute - restorative justice and sign a behavior contract
Thurs - engage in vandalism - restorative justice and sign a behavior contract
Fri - steal - restorative justice
Mon - cheat - restorative justice
Tues - disrupt class again - sign a behavior contract
Wed - arrive late again - have a parent conference
Thurs - use profanity again - have parent conference and sign behavior contract
Fri - violate the dress code - sign a behavior contract
Mon - skip class again - have a parent conference
Tues - use phone in class again - get it back at end of day
Wed - create a disorder outside of class - conference with teacher and admin
Thurs - violate dress code again - have a parent conference, assigned detention
Fri - skip detention - detention is reassigned
Mon - vandalize again - restorative justice, one day ISSP
Tues - skip ISSP - it is reassigned
Weds - cheat again - restorative justice, detention
Thurs - skip detention
Chris, a mental health counselor cannot discuss a student's "home" problems without parental permission -- and most of those same parents would never give permission. How do I know? I was an EBD (self-contained) teacher and we had mental health counselors come in BUT they were ONLY allowed to talk with the child about problems at school. Well, when a students tosses a desk through a window, it's not because the desk had a problem, but maybe because mommy and her latest boyfriend got high again last night.
ReplyDeleteI did what was then called SED for a couple years. We had some legitimately sick kids but then most of our kids just came from terrible circumstances.
ReplyDeleteThat is the key point, "...most of our kids came from terrible circumstances".Yet, the parents bare no responsibility. Parents need to be made responsible for some things more than just pleasuring their LIBIDO. The animals seem to do it more responsibly, in their seasons.
Delete10 Years SED....Thank you very much !
ReplyDeleteThe district started tying our hands back around 94. I transitioned out of SED, and things started to get real slippery with all students after that.
What is SED?
ReplyDeleteSeverely Emotionally Disturbed...
ReplyDeleteI wish the parent of another student would sue the district on the grounds that this policy inhibits their child from receiving a quality as a direct result of the disruption caused from another student which was not acted on appropriately. How is it that the state of Florida deems a student responsible at 15 to propel 3 tons of steel at 70 mph and be held and charged with a capital crime and yet not responsible enough to behave in accordance with reasonable prescribed procedures.
ReplyDeleteHerein lies the problem at it's core: the parents are making decisions about how the collective "we" spend our money - the power to make these decisions was previously not given to the people whose credibility and brainpower are described in the post about mommy getting high with her new bf - and now you want to give her the right to sue us? Da-doy!?!
DeleteThis is the manifest collective brainpower of the pit-TeaParty, who told us in 2000 that we were failing and Leaving Children Behind - then they set out to prove their false premise by de-funding public schools, and now they have nearly achieved their goal of proving our schools are failing. Why? There are BILLIONS to be stolen from public education (stealing BILLIONS from public healthcare has already been done - duh)
It gets even better; follow the money - a huge pile of which resides in the public trust to be dedicated to educating children, but which is being handed over to corporations in Florida -
4 years + ago Slick Snott required each teacher to contribute 3% of their salary to go to their retirement - in violation of the contract signed with teachers by the Florida legislature in the early '70s - because Slick Snott claimed we were in a "financial emergency", then immediately turned around and granted $3,000,000,000 (yes - that's Billions) in tax breaks to Florida corporations.
To date, not one thin dime of teacher's salary contributions in these 4 years has actually gone into any teacher retirement account, but have remained in the general funds for Simon BarSnott-ister to do with as he wishes - probably some of it has been used to pay for the ridiculous commercials he does that show up on HuluPlus - a giant partner of whom is Florida's own Disney Corp. - seriously! Who da thunkit?
Interesting how money just flows around and is still the best way to track thieves and terrorists, but not kind that shave their heads and fly planes into buildings - just the kind who steal 3 billion from elderly and disabled (see also "Medicare Fraud/largest in US history) - then use their $300,000,000 commission (300 million) to buy a governorship, where they can then make MORE( laws to steal even more.
Snott should open a terrorist/thief training camp - (but what am I talking about? - he probably already has), because he is a master thief fox in a hen-house populated by TeaParty members claiming to want small government.
I guess there is no better way to shrink the size of government than to steal all of the taxpayer's money.
8 years SED here, by the way.