Re: “Pupil self-discipline: Are colleges geared up to deal with behavioral extremes?” [Nov. 26, Opinion] and “5 seismic modifications to training in Washington over the previous decade” [Oct. 29, Education Lab]:
There have been plenty of current articles concerning the effectiveness of suspensions in our public colleges. The primary thrust of those accounts has been that suspensions don’t work as habits modifiers.
I labored in public training for 33 years and self-discipline was at all times a Catch-22. Whereas my expertise helps the notion that suspension could be very typically not efficient in modifying habits, it was by no means efficient for college students with a number of suspensions. Any trainer will let you know that it isn’t nearly these suspended college students. It’s also about sustaining a secure, rule-based system with enforceable norms for all the opposite college students locally. All self-discipline methods have to be assessed by way of this extensive, group lens.
I by no means skilled a single 12 months in my 33-year-long training profession wherein faculty self-discipline wasn’t the highest workers subject by March. It’s only a fixed battle in public training with no easy solutions. If suspensions are to go away, then colleges should have one other different that doesn’t contain simply throwing college students again at school. This different received’t be low cost.
Matt Condit, Gig Harbor
