Reply to Did schools used to have behavioral problems like they do now?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]They used to be able to suspend or expel kids and move disruptive kids to self-contained programs. Now the trend is to pretend like a teacher can handle a classroom with wildly divergent learning levels while also tackling problem behavior in the name of inclusion. I think the pendulum will swing the other way over time, but right now it's bad. [/quote]

I suspect this is the answer. When I was a kid, kids got expelled from public school all the time.

I also think there just wasn't a tolerance for bad behavior the way there is now. It was not excused. If you hit a teacher or threw something, you were going to be marched to the principals office and scolded. Harshly. I remember my elementary school principal (who I remember really liking, and so did everyone, don't remember any complaints from parents) had "The Box" - it was just like an index card holder. And if you did something bad and got sent to the principal's office, your name went on a card in "The Box" and if you were in there three times, something really bad happened (I think it was a week's suspension?) And The Box carried over year to year! I never got in The Box, but my best friend did for throwing food in the cafeteria once in like 2nd grade.

Lunch detention was common. Eat your lunch by yourself in the chair outside the principal's office. There was always a kid or two who got suspended each year.

Parents would be called. And they (all of them!) would join in the scolding. If you misbehaved at school, when you got home, you were going to be sent to your room to "think about what you did" for like 30 mins. Parents NEVER sided with the kid over the principal or teacher.

People nowadays think you can just talk to kids about their behavior and "work with them to change it." But the reality is that consequences are how kids learn. Everyone's so quick to say "well, little Larlo is still learning." THAT DOESN'T MEAN THERE SHOULDN'T BE A CONSEQUENCE. Consequences are how you learn. These days, I can't imagine that one instance of throwing food in the cafeteria would mean a trip to the principal's office and a phone call home, and that three instances over five years (!!!) would mean a suspension. Every parent on this board would freak out. "How will little Larlo get into college with a suspension!?" So, kids know, they can probably hit the teacher a few times, destroy a classroom, and they won't actually be punished. So... why bother learning self control?

There was a post just last week about "well, maybe it's not fair for my kid to miss field day for roughhousing in the hallway." It's easy to blame this on the "truly disruptive" kids - but your UMC "good" kid getting to skate by on minor infractions is DIRECTLY related to this problem. [/quote]

I agree that more parents used to be on board with punishing bad behavior.  I had a neighbor who's kid kept getting suspended.  She was annoyed bc she felt it was a punishment for HER.  I overheard her tell my mom that she called up and asked if she could send him to school and they could make him do chores!  They couldn't of course, but at least she acknowledged the issue. He eventually ended up in private.[/quote]

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