This is Jennifer Gonzalez, welcoming you to episode 252 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast.

In this episode, we're going to explore some of the reasons discipline reform isn't working in some schools.

Something has gone wrong in the way many schools are handling student behavior, and we need to talk about it.

I have been part of a larger push for discipline reform for nearly a decade now.

I have promoted approaches to student behavior that prioritize things like relationship and community building, repairing harm, trauma-informed teaching,

centering the voices of marginalized students, and reducing or eliminating exclusionary punishments.

Many of these practices can comfortably fall within the larger category

of restorative justice, an approach to conflict resolution with indigenous roots that is

becoming more common in schools every year. While this should be a positive development,

a shift that results in improved behavior in every school

that moves in that direction. That's not what's happening in every school. For a few years now,

I've been hearing from teachers in various spaces that the discipline systems at their schools

have completely broken down, creating an environment where students basically do whatever they want with no

consequences. This has made teachers feel frustrated, angry, unsupported, and in some cases, unsafe.

In at least some of these schools, what I think is happening is that leadership has gotten a broad

restorative justice light message

that suspensions are bad, that in fact any consequences at all are now taboo, and teachers should

stop sending students to the office for behavior issues. In the rare circumstances when teachers

do find this necessary, the student in question

should be given a snack and sent back to class. This is not at all what restorative practices

are supposed to look like, so it's no wonder this approach isn't working. To get a clearer

picture of how widespread this problem is,

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