Students Need Consequences, Not “Restorative Justice”
Jennifer Weber, Carolyn D. Gorman:
This view overlooks a basic behavioral principle: that consequences shape what children do next. Some consequences make a behavior less likely—that’s punishment. Others make it more likely—what B. F. Skinner called reinforcement. It doesn’t matter whether the reward is getting something good or merely escaping something bad.
Much classroom misbehavior is motivated by the desire to escape. The student is trying to get out of something he finds unpleasant, whether it’s work he can’t do, a subject he’s failing, or an audience he’d rather not face. For that student, a suspension acts as a reward—it gets him exactly what he wants, reinforcing the behavior. The harm is what the days outside of the classroom bring––disengagement and the growing sense that school is not where he belongs. Other misbehavior is motivated by desire for attention; in those cases, pulling the student aside for a one-on-one discussion is unlikely to be an effective deterrent.
The restorative-justice practices that have replaced suspension, such as mediation circles or discussion with a teacher, distribute the same kinds of unintentional rewards. A child escaping a math worksheet doesn’t care whether he gets a suspension slip or is placed in a restorative circle; either way, the worksheet is gone. Likewise, a child who seeks adult attention doesn’t care whether it’s punitive or therapeutic; either way, he got it.
Schools often––unintentionally––deepen the reward of attention through the use of mental-health programs. A standard response to repeated misbehavior is a visit to the school counselor or school psychologist. There the misbehaving student receives a caring adult’s undivided, one-on-one time. Students who need adult attention should get it, but not as the payoff for acting out.
Escape works the same way in reverse. The trip to the counselor’s office ends the math lesson just as surely as a suspension does. For the student acting out to avoid work that he cannot do, an effective response must ensure that the work does not go away. The assignment should wait for him––in the office, after school—so that the misbehavior no longer gets him out of it. And because the skill he lacks is usually the real problem, the lasting fix is help with the work itself, which will give the student more reason to want to stay in the classroom.
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Notes and links on Restorative Justice.
