It is important for both teachers and students to coexist in a safe, conducive, and supportive school environment to allow for effective learning. A supportive school environment with reduced rates of expulsions and suspensions can only be created when there is a proper balance between the behavioral, social, and emotional needs of both the teachers and the students. Behavior problems often tend to get in the way of schools attained their set vision and mission. Not only is misbehaviour disrupting, but it is also hurtful when it reaches the levels of intimidating and bullying others. For this reason, the issue of student behavior management and discipline are increasingly tabled topics. There is an increasing agreement on the fact that the traditional approaches that were applied to enhance discipline might have a negative impact on the learning patterns and the school climate ( Morris & Howard, 2003). It is important to rethink the concept of discipline, in that using positivity when managing student behavior might be far more effective in dealing with the behavioral issues that the schools face.
Essentially, any learning institution has a set of rules that the teachers and students are expected to abide by. While some of these rules make sense are understandable, that is not the case for others. A student is supposed to be constantly on the lookout regarding their actions to ensure that their actions are in line with the stipulated rules. For instance, it might be taken as an offense if a student talks as the teacher is talking, or maybe they get up from their seat without asking for permission, or maybe answering a question before the teacher has called their name out. As ridiculous as some of these rules might sound, any contradictory action would be met with a warning, a beating, or maybe being asked to bring your parent. In all honesty, classroom management and student behavior management does not have to be like this, not a tiny bit.
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Traditionally thinking, classroom are considered to be orderly and well-structured when the students are disciplined and ‘good.’ This behavior is considered to be having the students stay on-task and remain silently seated at their desks. In his book, Being Good: Rethinking Classroom Management and Student Discipline , (Wolk, 2002) looks into and challenges the traditional beliefs that have been held regarding classroom management, and he questions the definition of order, structure, and the aspect of ‘being good’ in the modern classroom. Wolk is against the traditional classroom management system, and he brings forth a proposition that structure and order could be used to insinuate that teachers and students co-exist and live in a caring classroom environment that fosters character development among the students while promoting self-discipline. This suggestion looks into ways where a classroom management system will be based on democratic philosophy to emphasize on the need of character development within the student.
In its most basic form and definition, discipline is the process of training a group of people or an individual a set of rules with consequential punishment in case any of these rules are broken. This is negative punishment that brings fear. Maybe it is time to rethink discipline and embrace positive discipline. A positive discipline classroom environment is one whereby the students are taught to embrace positivity through positive means and they are rewarded when they take heed. This might seem like a complex technique but is really is simple and it results in a more positive and productive learning environment in the long run (Kohn, 1995). Before looking into this proposed manner of rethinking discipline in the classroom, it would be helpful to understand how traditional disciplinary practices operated.
Traditional Disciplinary Techniques and their Effects
Several surveys have been conducted on the issue of student discipline, and the results are in agreement with the fact that student behavior is a crucial aspect when it comes to teaching (Bergin & Bergin, 1999) . It is only natural that teachers tend to respond by disciplining the misbehaving students so that the rest can see the consequences of such actions. The traditional disciplining techniques hold to the assumption that publicly displaying the consequences of indiscipline will prevent a re-occurrence of the same. For this reason, schools have committed a lot of time towards classroom management and discipline. It is, therefore, not surprising that several schools tend to lean towards negative punishment and other social control strategies. Such traditional disciplinary techniques include beatings, exerting power, or expulsions. The problem with such techniques is that they only end up painting schools like some sort of prisons and no learning places.
Punishing a student is to have them do something that is undesirable and that they would not want to do. The manner in which this disciplining is conducted only paints a picture of the student as a bad and undesirable individual, something that only leaves a negative attitude not only towards the student but also towards the school. Traditional disciplining has been proven to control behavior temporarily. However, they end up reducing the zeal of the student to learn at school, they affect the important student-teacher relationship, make it impossible to understand why the student is misbehaving, imposes emotional problems and a negative self-image, and with time it can cause a detachment from social and academic interactions resulting in an eventual school dropout (TeachBeyond, 2019) . All this is an evident dissociation from the vision of any school, which is to enhance a positive learning environment.
A look into School Discipline Practices
A report by ( Gable, Hendrickson, & Smith, 1999) looks into the different disparities when it comes to school disciplining. According to this report then proportion by which students of color are expelled from school is way high in comparison to their White counterparts. In fact, the rate at which African American students are expelled and suspended from school is three times higher than that of White students. It is also surprising to note that while Native-American and American Indian students comprise of just one percent of the American student population, they account for 3 percent of students who are expelled and 2 percent of the students who are suspended from school. The suspension rate of African American girls is 12 percent, which is the highest compared to the girls from any other ethnicity or race. When considering the gender disparities, ( Gable, Hendrickson, & Smith, 1999) reports that there is an up to three times more likelihood of boys being expelled or suspended in comparison to girls. The report also states that the youth belonging to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) group, the youth of color, and students with disabilities have a disproportionately big percentage of recorded discipline.
Rethinking the Concept of Discipline
Ask any student who is in high school and you will realize that the main goal of the largest percentage is striving to ensure that they do not get in trouble, reason being that they cannot stomach the thought of being sent to detention. At the same time, there are some students who get into trouble just so that they could be sent on suspension. To them, suspension means that they get a break from school to play video games, watch movies, or simply enjoy being away from school. At this point, one already wonders if the disciplining is really worth it.
In an era of extreme school violence and zero tolerance policies, one cannot help but wonder what it is that these students could have done, which is so wrong to the extent that they are sent away from the school. In some extreme situations, the students are even arrested and put into criminal justice systems for juveniles. As already stated, these students who are often involved in these extremely undesirable actions are usually looking to be sent away from the school environment in the first place. They are not in any way interested in being in school, and they consider school and education as being a waste of time. One of the reason why these students are often so eager on being sent away from school could be the fact that their grades are dwindling and they want to avoid that confrontation from the teachers. What the teachers fail to understand when they expel the students is that they are actually giving them just what they want ("School Climate and Discipline", 2019) .
When it comes to rethinking the idea of disciplining students because of poor grades, it is important for the teachers to first understand that it is these students who need more attention. They need more school time and not less ("ESJJ: Rethinking Current Trends in School Discipline", 2019). They need to be brought to an understanding of why their actions are wrong. It is very rare that sending a student away from school to remedy unacceptable behaviors helps the child to learn. On the contrary, this action might end up worsening the situation because the child is no longer under the scrutiny of the teachers. In fact, it could give the student a notion that whenever they feel like they don’t want to go to school, then all they need is to do something that will anger the administration to the point of sending them away. In that manner, it becomes easy to repeat a past offense, something that traditional disciplining claims to avoid.
Regardless of this argument, it is unfortunate that most schools throughout history have resorted to this technique of punishments that comprise of detentions, in-school and out-o-school suspensions, and expulsions in extreme cases. All the same, very few of these punishments end up achieving the intended purpose on the student upon which they were imposed. It is disheartening that these behavior management systems are quite popular today. Some teachers depend on the concept of keeping a record of the students’ wrongs and with each record, the student faces an even tougher consequence. It is an ‘impose fear’ type of a system and all that it does is to send a message to the students that they are failures and there is no way that they can be helped. It is like telling the students that they deserve every single bad consequence that may come their way. That said, such students will feel hopeless and they will just continue disrupting the class, rendering the management system useless.
There are a couple of problems that surround the current disciplining system. For instance, detention only keeps the students from getting home on time, creating even more problems for the student. Also, the out-of-school detention system is illogical, especially in cases when a student is suspended because they skipped a class or missed school (Garen, 2014) . Expelling a student from school is simply sending them off to continue misbehaving, something that not only puts the society at a risk but is also makes the children a target of the police (Garen, 2014) .while there are some schools that offer remedial tutoring services for the expelled students, the program ends up being ineffective in situations where the tutors do not have the essential training on the problematic subjects for the students. It might also not be possible for parents to stay at home with the students to watch over them and ensure that they are in their best behavior. In this sense, expelling a student from school is another way of showing them that they have given up on them and that they have been surrendered to their bad ways.
The trend of zero tolerance policies dates back to the 1980s, a period when punishment was initially used to impose harsh penalties on drug users and other criminals (TeachBeyond, 2019) . The trend was then embraced by school with the aim of punishing the students who came into the school property with drugs or any other illegal substances. Many people who argue in support of zero tolerance are usually using the backup of the fact that the rules help eliminate drug use in schools.
However, the problem of the implementation of these zero tolerance policies often lie in the harshness of the rules. There are some cases where the students end up being sent away from school for up to one year! It is true that this rule could be applicable and helpful when dealing with students who are a major menace and pose a danger to the students, school, and the community. However, the policies do not allow the administration to impose lesser punishments for the less serious offenders. The policy fails to distinguish between the good student who makes a horrible mistake once and the regular, notorious offender. It is ridiculous that an offense like being caught with a drug like aspirin or ibuprofen in the class could warrant the imposition of the zero tolerance policy.
According to (Mitchell & Bradshaw, 2013), the best technique that the school management can embrace to help overcome the issue of misbehaviour and indiscipline is by embracing proactive and preventative teaching measures. Consistently and regularly using rules to remind the students what is expected of them could be an effective technique of ensuring that they do not get in trouble. But before creating these rules, the management should consider having the students involved in the process of making the rules. That way, it will be easier for the students to remember these rules, and they will also have an understanding of why the rules have been put there in the first place (Mitchell & Bradshaw, 2013). The idea of character development is not something that can be enforced. Rather, it is something that is worked on mutually by the two involved parties. Any time when the students view what the school considers punishment as being a form of a reward, then the school is failing in its role of building a strong moral character for the student.
Another path that the management can consider trying is that of counselling. ( Morris & Howard, 2003) poses the issue of whether counselling is an effective technique of dealing with undisciplined students. According to this discussion, it can be confirmed that group counselling could be an effective technique when it comes to improving student behavior, increasing attendance, reducing truancy, and raising the average student performance. The benefit of counselling, which makes it an effective technique of dealing with indiscipline is the fact that it gives the students the opportunity to think about their actions and even get to express their thoughts and feelings.
The traditional disciplinary system fails to recognize the fact that the student is human and that maybe there is something that is disturbing them, causing them to act the way they do. Introducing counselling sessions in schools is one of the best ways to break the communication barriers that could be existing between the students and the management. It gives the students the chance to air their issues and express their feelings without feeling like someone will take advantage of whatever they say. It is also a great way of helping the students feel like they are in control of their lives, something that instils a sense of responsibility.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that the manner of interaction between the students and teachers is heavily dependent on the classroom climate and the policies imposed by the management. Many institutions tend to embrace the traditional disciplining approaches, something that only ends up working against the goal of promoting a healthy working environment in the school. These techniques might also end up in building up negative attitudes in the students against the school and the management. Most often than not, such negative attitudes will only result in ant-social acts, behavioral issues, and mental health challenges in some cases.
Most times, disciplinary procedures usually result in students dropping out of school, and it is not surprising that these practices are sometimes referred to as ‘push-out’ techniques. From this discussion, one thing that is evident is the fact that it is possible to achieve a comprehensive and unified system that addresses the learning and teaching barriers without having to impose the harsh non-tolerance policies. That said, it is important for institutions to consider the developmental trend of focusing on behavior management through modern techniques such as involving the students in the rule-making process and also considering counselling for undisciplined students (Garen, 2014) . After all, what everyone needs is to have the sense that they are heard and that their voice is important. This is the basis of enhancing and ensuring a positive learning environment.
References
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ESJJ: Rethinking Current Trends in School Discipline. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.geneseo.edu/~esjj/Spring2004_4.html
Gable, R. A., Hendrickson, J. M., & Smith, C. (1999). Changing discipline policies and practices: Finding a place for functional behavioral assessment in schools. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth , 43 (4), 167-170.
Garen, J. (2014). School Choice and School Discipline: Why We Should Expect the Former to Improve the Latter. Journal of School Choice , 8 (4), 618-636. Doi: 10.1080/15582159.2014.973781
Kohn, A. (1995). Discipline Is the Problem--not the Solution. Learning , 24 (3), 34.
Mitchell, M., & Bradshaw, C. (2013). Examining classroom influences on student perceptions of school climate: The role of classroom management and exclusionary discipline strategies. Journal of School Psychology , 51 (5), 599-610. Doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2013.05.005
Morris, R. C., & Howard, A. C. (2003). Designing an effective in-school suspension program. The Clearing House , 76 (3), 156-159.
School Climate and Discipline. (2019). Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/index.html
TeachBeyond. (2019). Rethinking School Discipline - TeachBeyond. Retrieved from https://teachbeyond.org/news/2018/10/rethinking-school-discipline/
Wolk, S. (2002). Being Good: Rethinking Classroom Management and Student Discipline . Heinemann.
