By Anonymous
Filed Thursday, October 20 at 8:44 PM
October 17, 2005 -- Kudos to the staff at Shaw Visual and Performing Arts Elementary School for moving away from group punishments, and for trying new techniques for maintaining order in the lunchroom, and kudos to the principal for showing a willingness to work with parents.
The new discipline initiatives emerged after several parents complained to the principal about teachers and other adults in the lunchroom yelling at children, and then punishing everyone for the transgressions of a few.
"I could not believe it when my daughter came home and told me she had to stand against the wall and miss recess when she didn't do anything," said Tawnya Braun, the mother of a first grade student new to the school this year. "But I checked it out and found out she was right. Her whole class was punished because two kids were talking."
The problems with group punishments are two-fold: everyone recognizes that they are unfair, and they encourage children to misbehave. After all, if you are going to be punished whether you behave yourself or not, you might as well get to enjoy acting rowdy or talking loudly.
The principal invited Braun and some of the other parents to volunteer in the lunchroom, and that led to discussions about how to improve the atmosphere of lunch. Taking a leaf from the hospitality industry, they decided to play music during lunch. The result? "It's a lot quieter now," said one student.
They also decided to set aside a lunchroom table for lunchtime detention. The staff has been instructed to no longer mete out group punishments, but to discipline children who misbehave by moving them to the detention table for a week.
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