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The student is trying to accomplish something with his bad behavior; don’t let him.
Tony Woodlief’s op-ed “‘Restorative Justice’ Brings Violent Schools” (July 30) is right that restorative justice has failed students and teachers. Schools and districts need a standard for judging any discipline policy—one that asks what the misbehavior is accomplishing for the child, and whether the school’s response changes it.
As we have argued elsewhere, most misbehavior is a child’s way of escaping work he can’t do or winning an adult’s attention—and both restorative circles and the suspensions they replaced can hand him exactly those rewards. A child escaping a math worksheet doesn’t care whether he leaves on a suspension slip or in a restorative circle; either way, the worksheet is gone. That is why simply restoring suspensions will also fall short.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal (Paywall)
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Jennifer Weber is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.