Why discipline fails

I’ve had teachers make me write phrases over and over again. “I’ll never talk while the teacher is talking.” Just because someone writes something 100 times doesn’t mean they will act based on what they’ve written. 

I participate in an extracurricular activity where the adult leadership is strict.  My fellow students don’t really have much of a voice. After one unexcused practice absence, the absent student is responsible for writing an essay. 

Teachers sometimes make students in their classes write essays explaining their wrongs and apologizing. 

I personally understand the importance of acknowledging your wrongs, but if I’mforced by a teacher to write an essay about it, I wouldn’t change or grow from that situation and punishment. 

Instead of seeking to teach us a lesson, teachers and parents should focus more on improving their relationships with minors instead of focusing on punishments. I have more patience with adults who I’m familiar with. I feel like I can open up to them. 

Students are most comfortable opening up to understanding, relatable adults who listen to what students have to say. They don’t have as many beDhavior problems in their classrooms, and students are favorable toward them.  

Something that makes me feel comfortable talking to an adult is when he or she speaks in a calm tone and lets me express my thoughts without talking over me or yelling. A calm conversation always makes it easier for both parties to open up and solve the problem. In the case of discipline, the adult should come to the child and ask why he or she has been acting out and how could they improve the problem or get rid of it. 

When I see students getting sent out of class here,it’s disheartening because I’ve been that student getting sent out of class for little to no reason. 

My freshman year I once got sent to the principal for being on my phone the day before. The teacher wasn’t there; we had a substitute. When the teacher came back the next day she confronted me about it. My response was basically “I can’t do anything about it today because it happened yesterday,” but I did acknowledge that it happened. 

When I went to the principal’s office, he acknowledged that I’m normally a good student.  He advised that I just do my work in the class for the rest of the year and stay out of trouble, and that’s what I did.

Not every student is as lucky as me. Not every student gets off the hook, even with the smallest offenses. When students are sent to ISS for the smallest reasons it affects that student’s education. When you’re sent to ISS you’re not learning anything. They give you a worksheet and say, “There you go, thats your work for the day.” This angers me because from experience I’ve learned that students don’t actually do the work because they lack motivation at that point.

When students fight at school and are given OSS they don’t talk about the problem that occurred to cause the fight therefore they just fight outside of school or again when they return to school. When these things happen I wonder what the point of OSS is if the problems that the students are having aren’t solved. Instead they just miss out on school and get behind. 

As a student I understand the importance of getting assignments done, being serious and showing respect. I think adults should respect younger people in the same ways that they want to be respected. 

The communication that young people have with adults needs to improve. If it was better there would be less adult/child conflict. Children would be more cooperative with discipline.

Nikkia Bell

Nikkia Bell is a senior and Viewpoints Editor for the BluePrints Magazine. Bell is interested in becoming a Counselor or Physical Therapist. She enjoys the people she gets to be around in journalism and get better at her writing.

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