This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 134 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast.

In this episode we're going to look at why punishments don't often work and why a restorative

justice approach to challenging student behavior known as repairing harm is a much better

alternative.

Since students behave in ways that are disruptive, when they do things that harm others or when

they otherwise make choices that go against established rules, schools often respond with

punishment.

Removal from class, a phone call home, detention, suspension, even expulsion if the behavior

is considered extreme enough.

It's been this way forever, at least in traditional western schools, and most of the

time these punishments don't really work.

Sure they remove the student from the situation, temporarily stopping the challenging behavior,

and it could be argued that in general many students choose to follow the rules because

the threat of punishment acts as a deterrent.

They don't want to get in trouble, so an acceptable level of order is maintained.

But punishments don't really do anything to address or correct the source of the misbehavior,

and most of the time they do nothing to fix any damage that may have been caused by it.

On top of that, exclusionary punishments like suspensions create their own set of problems.

When students are removed from class, they miss instruction, putting them behind their

classmates and making them more likely to fail academically.

This often leads to higher drop-out rates and puts far too many students, especially

students of color, on the path to prison.

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