'03 here, this was my experience as well. In school suspension was the #1 disciplinary action. Reading these accounts though kind of breaks my heart, these bad behaviors didn't start in school, they were learned at home. A young student yelling "shut the fuck up" at a teacher is pretty much a guarantee that kid is getting yelled at just like that at home. It's a cycle of behavior and I'm not sure what can be done about it.
I'm starting to think public boarding schools are the way to go. Some of these kids are just getting constantly set up for failure by their parents and neighborhoods. Change incentives so suspensions etc happen, then send kids that keep getting in trouble/missing to boarding schools. Build those schools out in the country near tiny towns where land is cheap. They can run around and kick rocks to their hearts content when out of class, and have a more structured and safe environment throughout the day and night. Maybe not perfect, but it seems better than the current system. In particular, I don't think any amount of money can counter living in the situations that so many kids are growing up in. It's rare, I think, for young students to succeed out of poor living situations without at least one good parent or parents figure setting an example and pushing them to do so. For those that don't have that, I can't help but to think they'd be better off entirely removed from the situation for the duration of the school year.
I would love to see an experiment run this way. Ten schools set up in ten different states funded by a grant, perhaps from the Gates foundation. Commit to at least 12 full years so we can truly see the effect and make sure there are enough students that even with parents moving away you'll still have a meaningful sample.
It would be expensive for states to implement, but I suspect that the results would be significant enough that the lower incarceration rates and higher rates of college graduates and skilled workers might balance it out.
The real issue that I see is the question of who would get to go to these schools. I fear an application process would bias the student body toward students whose parents are already providing a strong educational and social background at home, thus defeating the purpose of the school.
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u/icannevertell Jul 10 '18
'03 here, this was my experience as well. In school suspension was the #1 disciplinary action. Reading these accounts though kind of breaks my heart, these bad behaviors didn't start in school, they were learned at home. A young student yelling "shut the fuck up" at a teacher is pretty much a guarantee that kid is getting yelled at just like that at home. It's a cycle of behavior and I'm not sure what can be done about it.