Creating a positive school culture and implementing a restorative discipline approach go hand in hand. Both have the power to make a school a place that kids want to be; they both create an atmosphere that permeates every aspect of teaching, learning, maturing, and exploring. They both speak to how everyone in the building feels about spending time with one another.
As small schools strive to make their environments more personal, it is necessary to re-examine the way we respond to discipline issues. As educators, our credibility with students depends on making sure our actions harmonize with our individual and shared values. If we purport to care about each and every one of our students, but continue to use retributive discipline measures, what credibility do we have, and what can we expect from our students in return?
Restorative discipline is characterized by social equality, mutual respect, shared responsibility, cooperation, inclusiveness (voluntary), restoration, and reintegration.
It aims to give students the opportunity to take responsibility for their behavior, to reconcile damaged relationships, and restore material losses.
The two discipline approaches our website highlights have been chosen for these reasons. They:
encompass both school-wide discipline (Restorative Discipline) and classroom management (Guided Discipline Approach);
are less prescriptive than most discipline approaches offered through teacher education programs and professional development workshops;
can be combined with other discipline approaches and are more easily catered to individual small school needs;
incorporate different ways of knowing, reflecting a more diverse group of learners;
incorporate the student's voice, without relinquishing the authority of the adult;
provoke discussion about current discipline practices.
Restorative Discipline and Guided Discipline are two approaches among many that we hope you will explore as you begin to examine your discipline practices. We have narrowed the search down to the classroom resources about discipline that we found encompass our ideal of supporting small schools based on relationships, rigor, and relevance.
