ATH: Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85%

[China]

Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85%

THE FIRST TIME THAT principal Jim Sporleder tried the New Approach to Student Discipline at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, he was blown away. Because it worked. In fact, it worked so well that he never went back to the Old Approach to Student Discipline. This is how it went down:

A student blows up at a teacher, drops the F-bomb. The usual approach at Lincoln – and, safe to say, at most high schools in this country – is automatic suspension. Instead, Sporleder sits the kid down and says quietly:

“Wow. Are you OK? This doesn’t sound like you. What’s going on?” He gets even more specific: “You really looked stressed. On a scale of 1-10, where are you with your anger?”

The kid was ready. Ready, man! For an anger blast to his face….”How could you do that?” “What’s wrong with you?”…and for the big boot out of school. But he was NOT ready for kindness. The armor-plated

defenses melt like ice under a blowtorch and the words pour out: “My dad’s an alcoholic. He’s promised me things my whole life and never keeps those promises.” The waterfall of words that go deep into his home life, which is no piece of breeze, end with this sentence: “I shouldn’t have blown up at the teacher.”

Whoa.

And then he goes back to the teacher and apologizes. Without prompting from Sporleder.

“The kid still got a consequence,” explains Sporleder – but he wasn’t sent home, a place where there wasn’t anyone who cares much about what he does or doesn’t do. He went to ISS — in-school suspension, a quiet, comforting room where he can talk about anything with the attending teacher, catch up on his homework, or just sit and think about how maybe he could do things differently next time.

Before the words “namby-pamby”, “weenie”, or “not the way they did things in my day” start flowing across your lips, take a look at these numbers:

2009-2010 (Before new approach)

798 suspensions (days students were out of school)
50 expulsions
600 written referrals

2010-2011 (After new approach)

135 suspensions (days students were out of school)
30 expulsions
320 written referrals

“It sounds simple,” says Sporleder about the new approach. “Just by asking kids what’s going on with them, they just started talking. It made a believer out of me right away.”

________________

The dark underbelly of school discipline

Take a short walk on the dark side of our public education system, and you learn some disturbing lessons about school punishment.

First. U.S. schools suspend millions of kids — 3,328,750, to be exact. Since the 1970s, says a National Education Policy Center report published in October 2011, the suspension rate’s nearly doubled for white kids, to 6%. It’s more than doubled for Hispanics to 7%, and to a stunning 15% for blacks. For Native Americans, it’s almost tripled, from 3% to 8%.

Click on the link for the full article

[Predicto]

Screw that. Zero Tolerance! Raaaaaaarrrr!!!!!

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Namby-pambies. That's not the way we did it in my day. In my day, we used a ruler.

[Destino]

They should have taken steps to negatively impact the rest of these kids lives and maybe had them arrested as well. Otherwise they will never learn.

[China]

Obviously this is the way they should be disciplined:

Thank you sir! May I have another?

[Teller]

That's great. The numbers for school purposes are fantastic.

But.

When you graduate a kid who does that to his boss, the boss isn't going to react with, "Now, Johnny sit down. Relax. Are you and the Mrs. doing OK?" He's going to get, "Johnny, this is the unemployment line. Stand in it."

[Henry]

That's great. The numbers for school purposes are fantastic.

But.

When you graduate a kid who does that to his boss, the boss isn't going to react with, "Now, Johnny sit down. Relax. Are you and the Mrs. doing OK?" He's going to get, "Johnny, this is the unemployment line. Stand in it."

Lots of things are different when you graduate. The point of school is to teach. If a kid learns social skills from school as well as academics, is that a bad thing?

From what I can tell the kids still get punished, but with this approach they might actually learn to keep from doing the same thing again the next time.

Frankly, I'm surprised this is news. It's parenting 101.

[Predicto]

They should have taken steps to negatively impact the rest of these kids lives and maybe had them arrested as well. Otherwise they will never learn.

[Teller]

Lots of things are different when you graduate. The point of school is to teach. If a kid learns social skills from school as well as academics, is that a bad thing?

Of course not.

But it's not a good idea to "learn" that when you believe like an idiot, the consequence is warm and fuzzy chats about feelings either. Most of the time, in the real world, that's not the case.

Like I said, for the school's purposes, this is good, and I commend the outside-the-box approach. I just wonder what the long-range ramifications will be; that's all.

[Predicto]

Of course not.

But it's not a good idea to "learn" that when you believe like an idiot, the consequence is warm and fuzzy chats about feelings either. Most of the time, in the real world, that's not the case.

Like I said, for the school's purposes, this is good, and I commend the outside-the-box approach. I just wonder what the long-range ramifications will be; that's all.

Hard to imagine how it would be worse than the other approach. I suspect that statistics would show that kids who get suspended and expelled are much more likely to become criminals and losers than those who get a second chance at straightening themselves out before school comes to an end for them. I have no problem with heaving out the few truly bad apples, but we cast the net very widely these days and ruin the lives of lots of kids who are not that bad, just immature or under stress.

[Destino]

That's great. The numbers for school purposes are fantastic.

But.

When you graduate a kid who does that to his boss, the boss isn't going to react with, "Now, Johnny sit down. Relax. Are you and the Mrs. doing OK?" He's going to get, "Johnny, this is the unemployment line. Stand in it."

Which is the way it should be... children being cared for and educated while adults face consequences.

[China]

Frankly, I'm surprised this is news. It's parenting 101.

Yes, but when you look at the kids in that school and their ACE results, they aren't being parented (at home at least). So this is becoming a new role for the school, not to just teach, but to parent. Sad for these kids that they aren't getting the parenting at home, but good for them that somebody is stepping up for them.

[mistertim]

Of course not.

But it's not a good idea to "learn" that when you believe like an idiot, the consequence is warm and fuzzy chats about feelings either. Most of the time, in the real world, that's not the case.

Like I said, for the school's purposes, this is good, and I commend the outside-the-box approach. I just wonder what the long-range ramifications will be; that's all.

Well, according to the statistics in the rest of the article it seems that students who are dealt with the traditional way via suspensions or worse are far more likely to end up in some sort of contact with the juvenile justice system and many times that ends up with a downward spiral effect over time (adult criminal justice system, etc). I can see that hampering the long term growth of a person.

Perhaps the kids who are worked with in this manner will become more introspective about the reasons for their anger issues, or what have you, and potentially see it as something they should work on, perhaps with a counselor. That would help them deal with the real world later in life as opposed to just keeping the anger and other emotions bottled up and ready to come out whenever an authority figure (boss, perhaps?) seems ready to attack you in some perceived way. But that is just speculation on my part, obviously. Just some thoughts.

[sideshow24]

Yes, but when you look at the kids in that school and their ACE results, they aren't being parented (at home at least). So this is becoming a new role for the school, not to just teach, but to parent. Sad for these kids that they aren't getting the parenting at home, but good for them that somebody is stepping up for them.

Especially since a suspension would be served right at home with those same irresponsible parents, and the kid likely doing something stupid with his free time instead of learning anything from the experience.

[PokerPacker]

Imagine that, actually trying to find the root of the problem instead of a one-size-fits-all zero-tolerance policy has a positive impact.