Any experience with a restorative circle in the classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arch-conservatives hate restorative justice or anything involving feelings. They seem to believe that children should seen and not heard and prefer corporal punishment since that's how things were done a century ago.

Name calling and ignorant generalization are extremely weak forms of argument. As an “arch” conservative, I would like to see substantial, credible data before making large scale changes in education, a field that frequently adopts and then abandons the latest fads… to the detriment of kids.

Super liberal here (and the teacher who just posted about my experiences). You are absolutely correct. Education is nothing more than a revolving door of fads. I’ve seen so many come and go over my two decades teaching.

Whenever someone claims to be a moderate or a liberal, it's usually clear they're the opposite, but simply trying to moderate their extreme views.

I recommend not dismissing people so easily. Yes, moderates and liberals can also disapprove of something like RJ. That’s not just the domain of an “arch conservative.”

The PP above dismissed my RJ experience immediately, assuming that I went into it closed-minded. There was no room in her worldview for the fact the circle simply didn’t go well and resulted in victim blaming.

Ideas like RJ will lose all relevance and support if they are so blindly followed. If schools want this to work, it can’t be like what I experienced. I didn’t post above about this, but it is relevant and will get the thread back on track: I’ve had students participate in these circles before. More often than not, the circles lead to more counseling and more trauma. Perhaps they are working well somewhere, but all I’ve seen is a failed experiment.

And I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss RJ. You may have noticed but several posters here are professional trolls that want to undermine clinically proven methods like RJ because it suits their political agenda.

I’m not quickly dismissing it. I’ve had my own failed experience, in which I walked out feeling like a victim twice over. I’m sure you agree that isn’t the desired result of a circle. I won’t place here what the other teacher did, but she should have been fired rather than emboldened. I’ve also seen it emotionally destroy several of my students, including one who we had to coax back to school after a circle. I gave it a try. I don’t think it works. Perhaps the perpetrator feels better and heard, but it is at the expense of somebody else.

I am not a troll. Trolling is not defined as someone who you disagree with.

[Anonymous]

Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

Nope, this happened to my child as well. Even with proof of their bullying. And the admin left them all together at lunch so they could further bond. Needless to say, as soon as admin left, the bullying resumed. Within minutes.

Restorative circles in a full classroom as described by OP might work if done right. The one-to-one or one-to-three or four does not and further victimizes the victim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arch-conservatives hate restorative justice or anything involving feelings. They seem to believe that children should seen and not heard and prefer corporal punishment since that's how things were done a century ago.

Name calling and ignorant generalization are extremely weak forms of argument. As an “arch” conservative, I would like to see substantial, credible data before making large scale changes in education, a field that frequently adopts and then abandons the latest fads… to the detriment of kids.

I know! There's so much name calling and weak generalizations every night on Fox news that is so disturbing, and don't get me started on their thoughts on education. The book banning and suppression of free speech in places like Florida is distressing. It's as if the GOP hates democracy.

Oh look… another logical fallacy. I would be happy to debate these issues with you on a separate thread, including your flawed understanding of democracy. But let’s stick to restorative justice here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

I'm a different poster and I'm fully inclined to believe the PP's story. What I see is simply an extension of bullying into the RJ circle, which would have amplifed the bully's voice and given it legitimacy. I'm grateful the PP's niece changed schools and I hope she's doing better in her new environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the content of the video?

It was on the misuse of technology. The themes in the video are mature (suicide, butt filler?).

What the absolute HELL??? This is MCPS in a nutshell. It's as if they know nothing about children. I'm glad they're addressing it, in any way all. Most complaints about subject matter like this are met with "grey rock, parents are overly sensitive and controlling, we've taken a workshop on how to block them out."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the content of the video?

It was on the misuse of technology. The themes in the video are mature (suicide, butt filler?).

What the absolute HELL??? This is MCPS in a nutshell. It's as if they know nothing about children. I'm glad they're addressing it, in any way all. Most complaints about subject matter like this are met with "grey rock, parents are overly sensitive and controlling, we've taken a workshop on how to block them out."

Just because some anonymous post makes a claim doesn't make it true. If these things went on, it would be in the news. Seems like their goal is to foster resentment by exaggerating facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

I'm a different poster and I'm fully inclined to believe the PP's story. What I see is simply an extension of bullying into the RJ circle, which would have amplifed the bully's voice and given it legitimacy. I'm grateful the PP's niece changed schools and I hope she's doing better in her new environment.

I'm not. It's basic math and they sound like a person in denial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arch-conservatives hate restorative justice or anything involving feelings. They seem to believe that children should seen and not heard and prefer corporal punishment since that's how things were done a century ago.

Name calling and ignorant generalization are extremely weak forms of argument. As an “arch” conservative, I would like to see substantial, credible data before making large scale changes in education, a field that frequently adopts and then abandons the latest fads… to the detriment of kids.

Super liberal here (and the teacher who just posted about my experiences). You are absolutely correct. Education is nothing more than a revolving door of fads. I’ve seen so many come and go over my two decades teaching.

Whenever someone claims to be a moderate or a liberal, it's usually clear they're the opposite, but simply trying to moderate their extreme views.

I recommend not dismissing people so easily. Yes, moderates and liberals can also disapprove of something like RJ. That’s not just the domain of an “arch conservative.”

The PP above dismissed my RJ experience immediately, assuming that I went into it closed-minded. There was no room in her worldview for the fact the circle simply didn’t go well and resulted in victim blaming.

Ideas like RJ will lose all relevance and support if they are so blindly followed. If schools want this to work, it can’t be like what I experienced. I didn’t post above about this, but it is relevant and will get the thread back on track: I’ve had students participate in these circles before. More often than not, the circles lead to more counseling and more trauma. Perhaps they are working well somewhere, but all I’ve seen is a failed experiment.

And I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss RJ. You may have noticed but several posters here are professional trolls that want to undermine clinically proven methods like RJ because it suits their political agenda.

Please post the peer reviewed clinical studies. I'd love to read them and understand more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arch-conservatives hate restorative justice or anything involving feelings. They seem to believe that children should seen and not heard and prefer corporal punishment since that's how things were done a century ago.

Name calling and ignorant generalization are extremely weak forms of argument. As an “arch” conservative, I would like to see substantial, credible data before making large scale changes in education, a field that frequently adopts and then abandons the latest fads… to the detriment of kids.

Super liberal here (and the teacher who just posted about my experiences). You are absolutely correct. Education is nothing more than a revolving door of fads. I’ve seen so many come and go over my two decades teaching.

Whenever someone claims to be a moderate or a liberal, it's usually clear they're the opposite, but simply trying to moderate their extreme views.

I recommend not dismissing people so easily. Yes, moderates and liberals can also disapprove of something like RJ. That’s not just the domain of an “arch conservative.”

The PP above dismissed my RJ experience immediately, assuming that I went into it closed-minded. There was no room in her worldview for the fact the circle simply didn’t go well and resulted in victim blaming.

Ideas like RJ will lose all relevance and support if they are so blindly followed. If schools want this to work, it can’t be like what I experienced. I didn’t post above about this, but it is relevant and will get the thread back on track: I’ve had students participate in these circles before. More often than not, the circles lead to more counseling and more trauma. Perhaps they are working well somewhere, but all I’ve seen is a failed experiment.

And I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss RJ. You may have noticed but several posters here are professional trolls that want to undermine clinically proven methods like RJ because it suits their political agenda.

I would love to see the “clinically proven” (lol) data on rj as it’s practiced in the community at large!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the content of the video?

It was on the misuse of technology. The themes in the video are mature (suicide, butt filler?).

What the absolute HELL??? This is MCPS in a nutshell. It's as if they know nothing about children. I'm glad they're addressing it, in any way all. Most complaints about subject matter like this are met with "grey rock, parents are overly sensitive and controlling, we've taken a workshop on how to block them out."

Just because some anonymous post makes a claim doesn't make it true. If these things went on, it would be in the news. Seems like their goal is to foster resentment by exaggerating facts.

My 4th grader came home asking why anyone would kill themselves -- something that had rightly never crossed their minds until a lesson at their MCPS school. So yes, these things do happen in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

I'm a different poster and I'm fully inclined to believe the PP's story. What I see is simply an extension of bullying into the RJ circle, which would have amplifed the bully's voice and given it legitimacy. I'm grateful the PP's niece changed schools and I hope she's doing better in her new environment.

I'm not. It's basic math and they sound like a person in denial.

DP -- so let me see if I understand: a group of kids bullies an individual child, which is how it usually works, and because they are in the majority that means they are right? You are an idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

I'm a different poster and I'm fully inclined to believe the PP's story. What I see is simply an extension of bullying into the RJ circle, which would have amplifed the bully's voice and given it legitimacy. I'm grateful the PP's niece changed schools and I hope she's doing better in her new environment.

I'm not. It's basic math and they sound like a person in denial.

DP -- so let me see if I understand: a group of kids bullies an individual child, which is how it usually works, and because they are in the majority that means they are right? You are an idiot.

+1
It’s such a common story. “The Crucible” comes to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Restorative justice can be valuable if done well. My experience with a restorative circle in a school setting was not a good one. My 7th grade niece was being verbally and physically bullied by a key ringleader who had pretty much scared the entire class into not talking to my niece. Even my niece's friends were afraid to hang out with her as the bully would then bully them too. The ringleader had 3 or 4 key sidekicks who would make up rumours about my niece to give the bully a reason to be nasty to her and to keep others away from her.

The school did a restorative circle with my niece, the bully and her 4 sidekicks. In the circle, the bully and 5 sidekicks said my niece was the bully and made up multiple fake examples of my niece bullying them. The side kicks cried about how much my niece hurt them. My niece said basically nothing as she was terrified of them all. The person leading the restorative circle basically told them all to stop bullying and to be nice to each other and that it was a shared blame and misunderstanding issue. They all had to agree to be nice to each other going forward. They left the restorative circle and basically bullied her immediately.

My niece changed schools the next year but that restorative circle did far more harm than good.

Sorry to tell you this but if a half-dozen kids are claiming your niece was the bully there's a strong possibility it was true.

I'm a different poster and I'm fully inclined to believe the PP's story. What I see is simply an extension of bullying into the RJ circle, which would have amplifed the bully's voice and given it legitimacy. I'm grateful the PP's niece changed schools and I hope she's doing better in her new environment.

I'm not. It's basic math and they sound like a person in denial.

Yes, their story is sus. It's not like these kids are pro actors that cry on demand. Agree the PP seems to be in denial.