Restorative Justice and Creating a Culture of Communication
Educators don’t always give students a voice when they make a mistake. Punitive systems require blaming one party and punishing them to address the behavior.
However, retaliatory consequences create a temporary bandage for an issue. They do very little to unveil the full story and bring all...
Repair the Harm: Teaching students to take direct responsibility for their actions
Suspensions, detentions, and referrals to the office all have one common flaw: they are exclusionary processes.
Asher threw pencil + Finlee threw pencil = two referrals to the office. They are both removed from the class and “taught” a lesson through the consequence. Throwing pencils...
Restorative Justice in the Classroom: 5 Ways to Create a Culture of Empathy and Responsibility
According to the Civil Rights Data Collection, of the 49 million students enrolled in public schools in 2011–2012, 3.5 million were suspended in-school, 3.45 million were suspended out-of-school, and 130,000 were expelled.
Another concerning fact from this source is that black students are...
Throw Out Your Office Referral; Circle Up Instead
Traditional discipline calls for rules and consequences, detentions, suspensions, and other carrots and sticks. Most teachers and school leaders know this ancient system does not work. What’s the answer to poor student behavior and school and class disruption? It may be as simple as...
