Picture this situation: Two six-year-old boys, Jason and Michael, get into a food fight at lunch. Globs of macaroni and cheese fly across the room. The lunchroom supervisor sends them both to the principal's office. The principal suspends the boys from school for two days.
Will the suspension correct the behavior? Not in the long-term. Research tells us that consequences for acting out must fit the misbehavior. Unless discipline focuses on teaching children how to act appropriately, they won't learn anything from it. For young children in the early grades, especially, this means that suspension, or worse expulsion or arrest, is never a good solution.
Unfortunately, many schools aren't paying attention to the research.
Suspension in the early grades is becoming a disturbing trend: Elementary schools are suspending children who are still learning to read, control their bodies and manage their emotions to deal with their behavior problems. In the past few weeks, reports surfaced in the Washington, DC metro area about young children who have been suspended or expelled for fighting, throwing tantrums and disrupting the class. Recently, a school in California suspended a 6-year-old for brushing against his friend's groin while playing. In Florida, an 8-year-old with special needs was arrested last February and charged with aggravated-assault for throwing a piece of a pipe at his teachers. Also last year, a school in New York City suspended a 9-year-old boy for two days for putting a "kick me" sign on another student.
A suspension won't make that 9-year-old think twice about making another sign. Many students in this age group, especially in kindergarten and the early grades, may not even understand why they've been told not to get on the school bus for one or two days in row. The "lesson" of their punishment is likely lost on them. According to a paper from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and The Equity Project at Indiana University, suspension can actually harm students in the long-term. Suspended students are more likely to struggle academically and drop out of school because often they are the same students who need the most support from school. Missing multiple days or being suspended multiple times only drags students further behind.
Children learn to act appropriately through their interactions with parents, teachers and peers. But not every child develops the social-emotional skills that help them control their behavior -- such as understanding their feelings, managing emotions, regulating behavior and developing empathy -- at the same time. And not every child has had the benefit of an early education and stable home situation that gives them a chance to practice these skills.
One study from Child Trends reported that kindergarten teachers rate 20 percent of their students lacking these skills. Many children learn to manage their emotions or control their impulses in kindergarten and first grade. But for others it sometimes takes much longer. That's why elementary schools should use discipline as teaching tool instead of as punishment.
Better disciplining options exist. In the food fight between Jason and Michael, for example, the principal could have instructed the boys to clean the tables in the cafeteria instead of leaving for recess. For other more serious infractions, schools could call a parent conference or ask parents to come to school with the student to help manage their behavior. In many cases, students with troubling behavior should meet with the guidance counselor whose job is to build a relationship with the student, uncover the roots of the behavior problems and help parents and teachers decide how to address them. Some innovative schools and preschools are also starting to use mental health specialists to give teachers tips on preventing children's outbursts and handling challenging behavior.
"There is actually a lot teachers can do to prevent problem behavior," says Walter Gilliam, director of the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at the Yale Child Study Center. By sticking to routines and smoothing transitions from one activity to the next, he says, chaotic behavior problems can be curtailed.
Alternatives to suspension take more thought, time and in some cases investment -- like making counselors available. But those investments are worth it to help children learn from their mistakes, and develop the skills that will ultimately keep bad behavior from repeating. In the early grades, discipline should be a teaching tool. Suspension does not teach. All too often, it is the canned response. When it comes to young children, even one suspension is too many.
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As a former 4th grade teacher for several years, I do understand the type of behaviors that occur in schools.
It's not only the well-behaved children that deserve and need a chance to learn, it is all children. This means that schools (teachers and staff) play an important role in handling behavior challenges.
Parents definitely play a significant role in teaching their children how to behave appropriately, but they do not play the only role. Teachers of young children especially, preK-3rd grade, have a responsibility to teach social-emotional skills, including self-regulation. These skills are just as important as cognitive skills.
It is also absolutely correct that the other children should not have to worry about being threatened or punched! Suspending the child from school, however, won't keep that behavior from happening again. There are options that can recognize and address that hitting is not acceptable and teach the child what is appropriate behavior. I mention some suggestions in my post. The consequence must fit the misbehavior, otherwise the lesson will be lost on the child.
Some behaviors problems are the result of deeper problems and in my post I discuss the important role of guidance counselors. I also say "Some innovative schools and preschools are also starting to use mental health specialists to give teachers tips on preventing children's outbursts and handling challenging behavior."
If a child doesn't understand why he or she can't go on the bus for a few days, then that can be explained to them. They can understand why a toy is taken away if they misuse it, they can understand being grounded from going outside to play if being punished, but they can't understand why they can't go to school if they misbehave? Please! They're not that dumb.
For some reason, we seem to accept that restraining orders are appropriate for people who can't behave and prison is appropriate for people who can't behave, but somehow suspensions are not acceptable? And yet restraining orders and prison could definitely be in the future of children who live without stern consequences.
This isn't about harming a child's psyche or education, this is about how too many ivory tower type people have bought into the thinking that everyone is responsible for children's behavior except their parents. If they don't have a stable home, the social workers better get to work and teach the parents how to make a stable home. Schools do not exist to fill every gap in dysfunctional families or in dyfunctional societies no matter what the ivory tower types prefer to believe.
-Nicole Beurkens, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
www.HorizonsDRC.com
Ultimately, I wound up home schooling because behavior issues, not hers, but other students, made school such torture I had not the heart to keep her in it.
It was written in true educrat-speak: here's the problem, here's what teachers do wrong in how they currently address that problem, teachers you're doing it wrong and it's all your fault. The end.
Here is what teachers *wish* educrats would say: here's the problem, we know where the problem starts (*cough* in the home before and leading up to the age of 5 when children start school *cough*), teachers this isn't your fault but here is exactly what we want you to do to deal with it--try this, if that doesn't work, do this, if that doesn't help, do this instead.
Yes, we have actually researched and hands-on documented these steps and that's how and why we know they'll work with your students. We are highly trained experts with many years' experience working with out of control, poorly parented children. We do not blame you at all; we know your teacher education programs never prepared you to deal with the fundamental lack of home support American society is plagued with. Yes, we are addressing the poor parenting in this country also, with these awesome programs run by trained experts with many years of experience helping parents who were never truly prepared to be parents.
I mean, a girl can dream, right?
While it may be convenient to think that all child issues begin in the home prior to them entering school, this is not the case. Clearly parents play a critical role in the development of their children and helping them be ready for school. However, some children have developmental challenges that persist beyond the start of formal schooling despite the best parenting efforts. I would encourage you to be very careful about throwing around absolutes blaming parents exclusively and "educrats" (as you call them) for pointing out flaws in our school systems.
I hope you are able to find more ways to feel competent with challenging students.
-Nicole Beurkens, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
The people who don't work in schools have plenty of advice for those who do, but they're "hit and run" people who don't actually do the day-to-day work in schools or understand (or care) how a few children with severe behaviors can disrupt a class so no learning gets done. They're content to throw out comments and criticisms, but they wouldn't last a week doing what a teacher is required to do. It's the arrogance and disdain of their statements that let teachers know they don't know what they're talking about and they don't actually have long term classroom experience, so their unsolicited advice is worthless.