A Little Distance is a Good Thing!

One of my tasks this week, while students and teachers are on Spring Break, has been to take a look at our district discipline guidelines, determine inconsistencies, challenges that have arisen with the guidebook when disciplining middle school students, and alignment with the state school disciplinary guidelines and statutes. Doesn't that sound fun?

My AP colleague and I took on this task today and I was struck by how easy it is to discuss discipline and consequences in the absence of children.  What a contrast this is to my lived experience in which I'm trying to determine a young person's intent, level of regret and responsiveness, all framed by my major philosophical focus which has been - what can you learn from this experience, and how can I help you not repeat it?   There they sit, in the blue chair opposite me, looking calm, bedraggled, glum, defiant, nervous, and/or oblivious. It is sometimes hard to predict how they will respond when we've determined the appropriate consequence; I had one young man cheer the other day when he got in-school suspension. Typically I ask them what they think would be an appropriate way to repair the situation and what consequence would help them learn from this mistake - and they are far harder, most times, than I would be.

Today, while talking about discipline situations in the abstract, I couldn't help but think about the regular visitors to my office and hope that they are having a great spring break.