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Bill: Discipline Doesn't Work
Details
Submitted by[?]: Leviathan Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: February 2096
Description[?]:
| As new research into education continues, it continues to support the fact that direct discipline accomplishes nothing except fostering a sense of coercion, resentment, shame and anger in students. While students who constitute a threat to themselves or their classmates should be removed from the classroom, this should be for the sole purpose of protecting the safety and learning environment of the classroom, and should not used as a method for 'solving' a problem. It is time for us to begin phasing out an out-moded form of classroom management, and get our teachers the training they need to keep up to date with the best methods available. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The teacher's right to discipline children.
Old value:: Teachers are forbidden from striking children and may only use non-contact discipline (detention, expulsion etc).
Current: No forms of direct discipline are allowed.
Proposed: No forms of direct discipline are allowed.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 05:43:15, August 12, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Discipline Doesn't Work |
| Message | As a party with a great many teachers, the LevP feels the time is right to broach this issue. Every classroom management system developed in the last ten years has consistently de-emphasized the use of 'direct discipline' for resolving classroom incidents. There is a growing consensus among leading educators, recognized as such by their peers, that what is needed in classrooms is for students to have a sense of community and ownership in their education, and direct discipline undermines these efforts by defining the relationship between the teacher and students as adversarial. We are not proposing an immediate end to all direct dicipline, but instead the following measures. 1) All teacher certification courses must now teach non-coercive management models as the primary form of classroom management, with the use of direct discipline reserved for issues of safety and the classroom learning environment. 2) Teachers currently certified will be required to take classroom management classes in non-coercive discipline models as part of their regular maintenance of their certification. 3) Teachers who use direct discipline can be reprimanded by their superiors if it is determined that there was no safety or leaning environment issue to warrant the use of coercive discipline methods. Repeated reprimands for this reason will result in the teacher being placed on probation for two years, during which time they will be regularly assessed by a regionally certifiied education probation officer. 4) Parents can file suit if they feel the school, shool board or school district is not enforcing these standards, or are enforcing them in such a way as to violate the law. We feel this allows for ample time for these new methods to be phased into school, as well as provides schools the freedom to act necessary to avoid a one size fits all solution. |
| Date | 06:29:45, August 12, 2005 CET | From |  Protectorate Party | To | Debating the Discipline Doesn't Work |
| Message | We are currently undecided. Though we would agree that there is a need of community and ownership in education, there are those who are disinterested in the process and thus are not willing to become members of this community. How are these students handled if they cannot be disiplined or in the extreme case expelled. |
| Date | 11:11:43, August 12, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Discipline Doesn't Work |
| Message | If you are interested in understanding how non-coercive discipline works, read the work of a theorist named Alfie Kohn. The idea is that students who are disinterested, and the PP is correct that there are students who are hostile to the process, are disinterested because they don't feel ownership, not the other way around. These students definatley don't opt into the educational process after being put in detention or expelled, for reasons that are quite obvious to those of us that were trouble students: if a student is doing something that bad, they don't care to start with, and punishing them isn't going to make them care. The key is to start making students care, which is why we need to phase out direct discipline. As noted, the bulk of new management theories support this view, and we are confident anyone who takes the time to educate themselves on the issue will see the need for this law. |
| Date | 20:07:43, August 12, 2005 CET | From | United Labour Party | To | Debating the Discipline Doesn't Work |
| Message | I'm confused. What sorts of measures would you propose to keep order in the classroom? |
| Date | 02:02:00, August 15, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Discipline Doesn't Work |
| Message | To answer the question (overdue, we're aware), the idea is that if you're at the point of having to punish a student, as a teacher, you've already done something wrong. As noted, if a student is continuously disrupting the learning environment, then a legitimate case can be made for removing them, and in this case we need counsellors and programs tailored to dealing with behaviorally disabled students. However, overwhelmingly, if students are told the rules and expectations of the classroom, and the teacher sets about creating a community (through class meetings, by having students set classroom expectations, etc), then any problems that occur can be solved in the classroom, with the class as a group. Students are like clay, in that if as you tighten your grip around it, more and more slips between your fingers. The best methods of classroom management give students the control they desire, and then teach them to use it responsibly. (ooc: don't know how to share his ic, but as a personal anecdote as a teacher, i had several classes that would get very rowdy, and when that happened I would either sit quietly in the corner of leave the classroom. Either way, within five minutes, the students calmed down and were begging me to teach, because they know they're not supposed to behave like that.) |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 80 | ||||||
| no | Total Seats: 0 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 17 |
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