Oakland to halt school suspensions for willful defiance

[clairegie 265]

Michelle Pfeiffer might be on to something.. hey mr tambourine man...

[eieio 1,594]

Because, you know, suspending kids for failed discipline at home definitely educates them and sets them up for a better future than the one their parents are setting them up for on their own.

Let's deny education to people who don't have good parents!

Right. We need to ignore the children who want to go to school and actually learn. Let's try to keep those who only want to cause problems in class.

Maybe just hire babysitters and play games all day? Anything to keep these troublemakers in class.

Give everyone A's and call in good. No need to actually have rules.

I can understand why smart parents flee to the suburbs so their children get a quality education.

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

Right. We need to ignore the children who want to go to school and actually learn. Let's try to keep those who only want to cause problems in class.

Maybe just hire babysitters and play games all day? Anything to keep these troublemakers in class.

Give everyone A's and call in good. No need to actually have rules.

I can understand why smart parents flee to the suburbs so their children get a quality education.

So the solution isn't to, as the article suggests, try and find ways to make school work for everyone and find alternative ways to discipline children, but to just kick out all the problem kids?

That doesn't make SENSE. It's FAR better to come up with better ways to invoke actual discipline than it is to just deny an entire group of already disadvantaged kids an education.

[eieio 1,594]

an entire group

I must have missed the "entire group" you are referring to. These are individuals that are disrupting the class. Denying other students from learning. Why should the teachers have to put up with this bs?

[Operator 1,925]

I believe that failures at home can create the discipline problems at school. I believe that the kids shouldn't be denied education because of their parents failures. Far too many times however everyones education is interrupted because some kid is acting out. I think that public schools should adopt a 3 strike rule. Three suspensions and you are off to an alternative school that is setup to deal with students that need extra attention. In most communities these schools already exist. No cell phones allowed, standard mode of dress and zero tolerance for mis-behavior. Complete two semesters without any violations and they are allowed to go back to their regular school.

[decocker 7,198]

Right. We need to ignore the children who want to go to school and actually learn. Let's try to keep those who only want to cause problems in class.

Maybe just hire babysitters and play games all day? Anything to keep these troublemakers in class.

Give everyone A's and call in good. No need to actually have rules.

I can understand why smart parents flee to the suburbs so their children get a quality education.

seriously starting to think this is the 6-8th grade approach to education. i'm not impressed.

my kid has attended a number of different schools, i've yet to see one provide this 'quality education' you speak of. the whole no child left behind thing was the final nail in the coffin, imo.

[decocker 7,198]

I believe that failures at home can create the discipline problems at school. I believe that the kids shouldn't be denied education because of their parents failures. Far too many times however everyones education is interrupted because some kid is acting out. I think that public schools should adopt a 3 strike rule. Three suspensions and you are off to an alternative school that is setup to deal with students that need extra attention. In most communities these schools already exist. No cell phones allowed, standard mode of dress and zero tolerance for mis-behavior. Complete two semesters without any violations and they are allowed to go back to their regular school.

unfortunately, from what i've seen, alternative schools tend to be more a holding 'school' for the ultimate destination of juvenile detention facilities. very little learning goes on in these environments, unless you're referring to learning about new drugs/new methods of hustle. at risk kids need more one on one positive adult interaction and alternative schools normally have worse teacher/class ratios that regular public schools, which are already pretty bad.

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

I must have missed the "entire group" you are referring to. These are individuals that are disrupting the class. Denying other students from learning. Why should the teachers have to put up with this bs?

If there are enough students being suspended for 'willful defiance' that they have to change the policy and force teachers AND ADMINISTRATORS to look at the reasons behind the defiance and find ways to reach these kids, then there's got to be a reasonably sized group of individuals disrupting the class.

It's better to have the school working, as it says at the end of the article, to find alternative measures, than it is to remove these kids from school entirely.

[decocker 7,198]

why look into it?! IF YOU DON"T EAT YOUR MEAT YOU CAN"T HAVE ANY PUDDING!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Go back to corporal punishment! We still have it in Texas.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Go back to corporal punishment! We still have it in Texas.

And look at all the bright lights that Texas produces...

I could go on but you get the idea...

[Golden Gate 530]

http://www.seattletimes.com/news/you-are-more-than-your-mistakes-teachers-get-at-roots-of-bad-behavior/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_bottom

[Sousuke 1,214]

If the root of the problem is at home, then a public boarding school may be the answer. Get them out of their environments and into a rural isolated area where they truly can be molded and educated. Think Battle Royale, without the battle.

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

If the root of the problem is at home, then a public boarding school may be the answer. Get them out of their environments and into a rural isolated area where they truly can be molded and educated. Think Battle Royale, without the battle.

The trouble with that is that it falls dangerously close to the terrifying boarding schools in the troubled teen industry.

[Golden Gate 530]

I had a friend who had a troubled daughter. She sent her across the country to a Catholic high school in the South. She managed to sneak out and do all the things she was doing back home in these new surroundings. Plus it costs a lot of money to board students. I can really see Americans funding the boarding of troubled teens. Plus, you will find most of the troubled students are in the inner cities among all of their troubled peers. It's called living in poverty. Considering the outcry I hear on here about how teachers are getting paid too much, and people just don't care to put money into education, I don't see how anyone in this country is working to solve this problem nor do they even care about the reality of these families just barely surviving. People would rather move out of the city to the suburbs and turn a blind eye to the growing population that struggles daily in low paying jobs.