11-03-2009, 02:57 PM
One of the first things we learned when I took Education Psychology was Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a widely accepted theory that states that in order for learning or other productive or creative activity to occur humans have a hierarchy of needs. The first are the basic needs of food, water and shelter, but the next level of needs is feeling safe. If a person is hungry or lacking other basic needs, or is AFRAID or THREATENED they cannot learn.
If kids want to scrap outside of school that is a matter for their families and/or the police to deal with, but if other kids are unable to learn because those kids create an environment where other children are afraid, then they are stealing other students' opportunity for educations and creating an unsafe environment for children who are required by law to be there. The solution is not telling every boy he needs to scrap back and become equally violent, but for the responsible adults to do their jobs and make sure that school is a safe place. The DOE discipline code is actually pretty strong if it is followed, but a student has to be suspended for a total of 9 days before he can be expelled, and in school suspensions don't count towards their 9 days. So administrators soft pedal the discipline and keep putting these kids back in the classroom where they continue to create an environment where it is almost impossible for other students to learn. This just prepares the troublemakers for a Hawaii justice system that gives criminals a little slap on the hands until they become murders and rapists, at which point they get a slightly harder slap on the hands. Same pattern, same people, just at a different level a few years later.
Carol
If kids want to scrap outside of school that is a matter for their families and/or the police to deal with, but if other kids are unable to learn because those kids create an environment where other children are afraid, then they are stealing other students' opportunity for educations and creating an unsafe environment for children who are required by law to be there. The solution is not telling every boy he needs to scrap back and become equally violent, but for the responsible adults to do their jobs and make sure that school is a safe place. The DOE discipline code is actually pretty strong if it is followed, but a student has to be suspended for a total of 9 days before he can be expelled, and in school suspensions don't count towards their 9 days. So administrators soft pedal the discipline and keep putting these kids back in the classroom where they continue to create an environment where it is almost impossible for other students to learn. This just prepares the troublemakers for a Hawaii justice system that gives criminals a little slap on the hands until they become murders and rapists, at which point they get a slightly harder slap on the hands. Same pattern, same people, just at a different level a few years later.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb