4 weeks ago
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Let's Be Real: Who Does Detention Really Punish?
Come on! We all know the answer to the question! Who does detention actually punish? Us, the teachers who are now tied up babysitting that same student who disrupted class. There is no absolutely no point to the traditional method of detention, unless your aim is to scare the student to death by proving how mean you can during your after school bonding time, which if you manage to do also effectively destroys any respect that the student has for you and your working relationship. So why does the institution of detention exist? If one of our goals as educators is to instill a sense of accountability within our students, we need to allow them opportunities to do so! Middle school students often act before thinking, at times, leading to poor decisions. Providing them with some avenue to take a step back, think about what they did, create some type of plan to rectify the problem and brainstorm how they can handle a similar situation differently in the future seems to make more sense to me than the highly held traditional detention process. We all make mistakes, it is how we handle them which measures who we are. Teaching students to take responsibility for their actions and recruiting them to become contributing members of the community seems like a much better use of time than detention.
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What is your school's policy when it comes to detention? We have been notorious for allowing students to do homework in detention, which seems to me a little absurd. Sure, let them catch up on work they have to do anyways so that they can enjoy their night! Way to punish!
ReplyDeleteRecently, though, we have a new policy. No more homework, but the students are busy working - busy answering a few questions about what they did, why it was wrong, etc. The culmination - they write an apology letter to the person they offended (teacher, student, etc). Seems like a better use of time, however I just received my first apology. It said something along the lines of "can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?" Now I'm wondering if we're teaching them to be more responsible or how to suck up!
We have two options - the first being a Restorative Justice circle where they must discuss their actions, who they affected and design a plan to make amends. Students who do not take this process seriously or do not opt for this option, are assigned a traditional detention. Students are required to be quiet and homework is allowed.
ReplyDeleteDetentions are frustrating. We are encouraged to take care of our own classroom problems before sending kids to the office, which means they always spend the time with me. I rarely want to sit in detention either, so my 15 minute detentions are more annoying than productive. We don't have any protocol either for the detention---today one student organized my bookshelf. Interested in what other people experience! I'd love to hear some success stories!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about detentions. Of course in 1st grade this doesn't exist, but the owing of recess time does. I am not even a huge proponent of this. Students need to run. You are only punishing yourself because later that child will not be able to focus. I am constantly trying to find creative ways to have students atone for their poor choices. If a student colors on the table, they scrub it clean and write a letter to the custodian and principal apologizing for damaging the property. If the student put their hands on someone else or said something mean I make them say sorry, but they can't just say sorry. I make them say sorry for what it is they did. Saying out loud what they did wrong I think is a powerful reminder of what it is they shouldn't be doing. If they say something meanly, I make them say it again in a more appropriate way. To me these are logical consequences to those actions. That to me is the key I guess, logical consequences.
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