Detentions
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[edit] Description
A detention is a form of punishment by which a student is made to stay after regular school hours. It is a method of school discipline generally used to deal with minor student misconduct. Disciplinary methods such as behavior contracts, mentoring, exclusion from extracurricular activities and after-school detention remain well-accepted alternatives to suspension (Collins and Dowell, 1998).
"Detention is one of the sanctions schools can use against bad behaviour. The Education Act 1997 gives schools legal backing to detain pupils after the end of a school session on disciplinary grounds (UK Law)."
I think that for a detention system to work the consequence needs to be as soon as possible for the student to connect their behavior to their actions. However, this cannot always be achieved due to restraints in terms of schedules and other conflicts. Also, I liked the suggestion that a teacher process the problem with the student to ensure that they understand what happened. It may also be beneficial to form a plan of action for the next time that the problem happens. We do use this system at our school and it has proven to be effective in most cases. B. Orenic==Application and Effectiveness==
According to Batchelder (1964), there are a number of advantages to the use of detentions:
1) They can be used as a substitute for more harsh forms of punishment.
2) Detentions can serve as a deterrent for students who have activities after school.
3) They are easily administered.
4) Students can do constructive work while in detention.
5) The teacher and student can meet to discuss issues in private.
6) The teacher can use the time to investigate causative factors to behavior problems and have productive conferences with student.
[edit] Criticisms of Detentions
The use of detentions in schools is highly debatable. Detentions are frequently criticized because they have limitations even in minor offenses and they use the school as a punishing device. When it is overused, the student can take on a "lifer" attitude and no longer fears further detentions (Larson and Karpas, 1963).
In a study by Di Lullo (2004), it was observed that detentions did not cover all aspects of the student conduct code fairly. For example, being disorderly in class, which can involve a wide range of actions, could result in several detentions; however, the number of detentions imposed was left to the discretion of the administrator and attitude of the staff member. In addition, minor offenses could result in a detention just as a more serious offense could.
According to Batchelder (1964), some disadvantages to detentions include the following:
1) A pupil can sense that he is detaining the teacher at the same time, empowering the student.
2) Detentions make unnecessary demands on the teacher’s time.
3) A student may work after school, or be needed at home, resulting in parental antagonism.
4) Detentions can cause conflicts with other school activities, creating friction among faculty members who need pupil for another purpose after school.
5) Detentions are often used for all offenders. This does not make distinctions to fit the punishment to the offense or to the offender.
How students spend their time in detention is important. If the student does nothing, there is no worthwhile learning taking place, and resentment of school builds. According to Larson and Karpas (1963), students should be required to have study materials with them, and silence should be strictly enforced. The disadvantage is that some students may like to be assigned there, because they are guaranteed time for uninterrupted work, which they cannot find elsewhere.
Detention after school is a medium-level sanction in Frederic Jones’ Positive Discipline Model back-up system although Jones does not see the real value of an after-school detention for several reasons. First of all, usually only the students who don’t really need it show up. Furthermore, it teaches the students that being in a classroom and a school setting is punishment. Jones feels, as a result, through associative learning, all school attendance becomes a punishment. He also feels that many teachers overuse detention. In his opinion, detention should be rarely used and if it is necessary, then it should be used in a well-thought-out systematic manner.
[edit] Alternatives to Detentions
While exploring this topic, I found many reasons why detentions do not work; therefore, I would like to discover more effective discipline methods. I always like the judges who give punishments that fit the crime. In a school setting it may work like this: Two boys write on the bathroom wall, their punishment should not be to sit in a room and think about it. As they sit there nothing is being done to remedy the situation. Instead they should be made to scrub those walls until they shine. Then the boys learn just how much work is needed to undo what they did.
I like the idea of having discipline that meets the crime in the situation above. I do not know if this would work in all situations, but I do like having students clean up their own messes in this situation. One problem I have heard with this sort of discipline is that you still have to have a person supervise them. I do not know if there would be enough supervision to go around. I guess the point would be that maybe there would be fewer problems like this if this was the punishment. If I see a person throw paper fragments on the floor I make the student go around the room and pick up all the paper fragments. This seems to work. Bret Helms Bureau Valley School District
When my junior high or high school students misbehave, I do not like to give detentions because I feel that I am also getting punished by their misbehavior. When students misbehave, I think that the punishment should be something that they dislike enough to make them alter their behavior in the future. I have found that having students write sentences on graph paper works very well. I write the first sentence, one capital letter per box with one empty box between words. I choose a sentence pertaining to the "crime" and I like to use long cumbersome words. Students must continue writing all the way to the last box in each line (even if it is in the middle of the word). The beautiful thing about this is that each line starts in a different place so they must go in order and they must write in capital letters. Students don't like to do it. I send them home with it; don't use up my time writing; use your own TV time. It works. Try it out. Rita Grunloh, Lexington High School, Illinois
[edit] Personal testimonies linking to concept
In my experience, detentions provide effective discipline for students who do not typically misbehave. For the chronic offenders, however, detentions lose their effectiveness. Students become accustomed to being detained, so it is nothing out of the ordinary. For some students, staying after school is a better alternative to going home. I saw this frequently when I worked in a school with a significant at-risk population. I have to say that in my school, detentions are overused. Some staff members lack creativity when it comes to discipline, and our principal encourages us to write detentions for just about everything. For example, we are to write a detention for each day that a student fails to return a signed report card. I admit to falling into this trap, and went from writing maybe two detentions a year to countless. After writing all of these detentions, and the students serving many hours, I came to realize why I never wrote them in the first place--detentions do not change behavior. If anything, detentions may lead to increased acting out by students because now they are angry with the teacher. T. Stilts
I have to agree with Rebecca Hix below. My school issues lunch detentions all the time for pretty much everything and it truly seems like a waste of time. However, my school does not do supervised after school detentions. I am totally surprised by this because it has always seemed like a big thing for schools to do. Interestingly enough, I work in a school where a some of the parents don't seem to care whether their kids get detentions, suspended, etc. This is ver sad, but I think we are at a point where we truly don't know what else to do with the kids other than assigning them a lunch detention. (Robert Hayes, 2008)
After reading all of these testimonials, it seems as though detention is a fairly univesrsal method of descipline. Even so, each instance below seems to have its own specific system of detention. One thing I didn't read too much about (though it could be listed below!) is lunch detention. Our school issues lunch detention as a consequence for just about everything. Upon receiving 3 lunch detention, the student is required to stay after school for an hour. After school detention is held each Wednesday and the teachers take turns supervising. Each time I supervise, I have to sit and watch the same 4 or 5 students sit and do nothing. It seems like such a waste of time! We are considering Saturday detention or detention where something actually happens. Most of my students don't care at all about getting detention. -Rebecca Hix Foley
My school pretty much has the same detention policy as Rebecca's school (above) with the lunch detentions and then after school Wednesday detentions. My problem has always been that teachers must first assign two detentions (one 15 min. and then a 30 min.) before the administrators will step in with the Wednesday detention. Should a student decide to skip the Wednesday detention then they will be assigned a Saturday detention. I don't typically give many detentions for behavior because I don't think a detention is a logical consequence for disrupting learning. For classroom disruptions it makes more sense for me to send the student out of the class. In this scenario the student misses out on the lesson and loses peer attention while the other students' needs can be put before the disrupter. When I do give detentions it's for excessive tardies. As a consequence I have my students rush through his/her lunch and then spend the rest of the time in my classroom. Then that student feels embarassed because the s/he isn't familiar with this group of students that now know that the student has been excessively tardy. On top of that, the student gets to hear the content of my lesson one more time.- J. Adams
In the two schools that I've taught at, I've seen two end results of the detention process. Detention can be a useful reflective time, if students are given the opportunity to reflect on the behavior that initiated the detention. Usually students in detention complete a detention reflection form. On the other hand, if detention is just a half hour after school that students who are consistently bad in class are placed in, these students can usually find someone or something else to cause trouble with.
The most effective detention system that I have encountered was when I was a student at Hadley Jr. High School in Glen Ellyn, IL. In most schools, detention is a duty that teachers pass around throughout the year, and these teachers may not know the students that are in that detention period. At Hadley, if a teacher issued a detention, the student had to make arrangements to serve the detention with that teacher. There was nothing more intimidating then having to serve a detention with the teacher that gave it to you. Since they are familiar with your classroom behavior and your classwork, they can make that the most effective detention time. - W.Rank
One of the biggest problems I have encountered with detentions is the varying interpretatation from one teacher to another regarding what exactly constitutes a detentionable offense. According to our school policy, it is rather open. Some teachers give them out frequently for various reasons from poor behavior to late permission slips or even improper uniform offenses. I personally reserve detentions for very poor behavior in the classroom or repeated disruptions to learning. Our detentions can involve calling a parent and then proceeding to sit facing the wall to stand facing the wall. Overall, I think it is an effective deterrent for the majority of students. However, after reviewing our numbers in the middle school recently (recorded on the computer) we found a few students who had a large number of detentions. At this point, I believe something further should be done. A behavior contract, meeting with the parents, or suspension should all be options for repeat offenders. Unfortunately, detentions are not "logical consequences" for almost all offenses, so for many students, they don't have an effect. However, in a time-demanding profession such as teaching, it's often a decent option for many situtations, especially in the middle school level. -L. Keener
I think with detentions like many other things it depends on how it is done if you want it to be effective. Detentions can be an effective means of punishment if done selectively. I do not think giving detentions all the time works. After a student receives so many detentions it is no longer seen as a punishment. Also at our school many students just refuse to serve them and go to the next level of punishment. Personally I very seldom give detentions. If I do I make the students serve it with me not in the regular detention hall. I make them do something constructive with the time. When I taught jr. high for example if a student got written up for throwing paper wads or something like that their detention would be to help clean the room. I have heard people talk about the elimination of them all together. My question is if you do that what sort of punishment is there. Students do need to understand that they are accountable for their actions. Craig Johnson
My kids middle school (grades 4 - 6) has a no touch policy in response to bullying concerns. No touch for a 4th graders makes it difficult to play a game of tag. Last year, my daughter came home very upset because she received a detention because of an incident on the playground. Some of her friends were playing "tackle tag" and she ran up to them at the point they tackled a boy in their class. At this point, a teacher blew her whistle and assigned them all to detention. The boy tried to tell the teacher that they were playing a game and that he was doing the same thing, her response was to give him detention also. The detention consisted on writing a plan; my daughter wrote her plan that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and for what she would do differently, she said 'let my friends play without running up to them'. The teacher got very angry at her plan and asked the boy to read it for accuracy. He read it and said, 'yah, she wasn't playing, we tried to tell you this, but you didn't listen.' My husband called the school to acknowledge the detention and asked about the reason. The referral was read to him that she was in detention for 'hitting and kicking a small boy'. While I realize that bullying is a problem in schools, including ours, I think that schools need to be careful of how they implement their policies and listen to the kids. Teachers should also be careful about what they write down on referrals. E. Morrison
When I was teaching, I rarely used detentions. Yet, if I really wanted to make an impression, I would give the student an after-school detention. For example, I had a very intelligent, young man in my fifth grade who was constantly forgetting to do his spelling book. I gave him a warning if he forgot his spelling book one more time, then he was going to serve an after-school detention. Well, he did forget and he did serve the detention and worked on the next week's lesson. (I really think he thought I was bluffing.) I made sure his mother came in and we all had a conference. I proved my point and he knew I wasn't bluffing and it didn't happen again. Sharon Morrisette
Personal Testimony (Ralph Alexander) I use dententions when a student or students is disruptive in class and refuses to modify his behavior. However, when you get a detention with Mr. Alexander you do not just sit and do nothing. I always use at least a portion of the time to talk with the student and try to find out if something is bothering that student. I often find if I listen that something is wrong. Even if it is a problem I cannot fix I often find behavior improves simply because I have made some type of connection with that student and he knows I at least understand the problem. Be warned, you may find out things you really didn't want to hear and you will have to take other actions involving the administration or even the police.
Personal Testimony (NMF) I have only been teaching for two years, but I have yet to give a detention. I have found that keeping students in at recess has been more effective for me. Although I have no experience with detentions, I know that our school has a lot of trouble enforcing detentions. It seems that those students who receive the majority of detentions seem to forget to serve them or it is too inconvenient for the parents. I think that if detention is going to work, schools need to have a plan that is written clearly so that teacher, students, and parents have guidelines to follow. The effectiveness of detentions, in my mind, depends on the effectiveness in how they are administered and carried out.
Personal Testimony Up until two years ago my entire building used detention for every consequence. If you did not get your homework done it was a detention after the second opportunity to turn it in. If you miss behaved you received a warning then a repeatitive offense was 30 minute, if you miss behaved again in one day it was a 45 minute detention and if you continued it was an in school suspension. Since we no longer use detention as the main form of consequences, I honestly see the students behaviors deteriorating. I do agree it was over used and I often motified a lot for my own classroom management to avoid it. One place where it really worked was homework. We now have a serious issue where we did not before when a student after the second opportunity to turn an assignment in it would result in a detention. The students now see no consequence to not doing their work not even the consequence of a failing grade or not learning the material is strong enoungh to compell the majority of the students to do their work. I have mixed feelings with the use of detentions and I am not sure where I will go from here. Time will tell.
I was a student for whom the prospect of receiving a detention was adequate deterrent. However, after years of schools with detentions, I can see the advantages of a detention, but at my schools, detentions never dealt directly with the reason the students were there. It was seen just as a nuisance by the students involved, the detention did little to address the real problems. Yes, they are easy to administer and inconvenience the student, but at my schools the students would just sit in a room, giving them a chance to socialize. I would rather see an individual detention where the student works during the time period, especially for a more severe case. Matt Munley
Personal Testimony: I think detentions can work in some cases, but not if used as continuous solutions to reoccuring problems. One of my high schools assigned a detention if students broke a rule 3 times, for example, arriving late to class, or missing some form of the uniform attire (skirt--at the correct length, vest, sweater, tie etc). Students had to pay $20 to sit in saturday detentions for 5 hours, and during this time we werent allowed to read, talk, or sleep...just to sit still, very quietly. Needless to say, I only went once! Jasmine Johnson
Personal Testimony: Speaking from the students point of view, I feel detentions were a good resource for teachers to turn to when the situation justified the detention. I had a gym teacher in high school issue me a detention, I was distraught over this, feeling like it wasn't warrented. I thought about my actions thouroughly before going to the teacher, what she said to me was a valuable insight into the reasoning behind detentions. The reason detentions are issued are to give students either time to finish the homework that wasn't done or to think about their actions as to not repeat the consequence. Both reasons help teachers control the behavior in the classroom and help students get their work done. This teacher took my detention away because I had accomplished what she wanted me to, I thought over my actions and realized I wasn't being fair to her. Not all students would react this way and others may disagree with me, but I think detentions would work if they are for the right reason. MJB
When I went to pre-student teach 7-8th graders for a hour once a week at a school around the rural areas of Champaign, I was really suprised at the strict sense of discipline that teachers were giving to these students. The school is a K-8 school, so everyone knows about everybody. I was given the authority to write detentions as their method of discipline and couldn't bring myself to do it. How does putting a kid in detention prove to the student? Most of the kids put in detention are probably glad that they are out of the classroom doing nothing. Maybe when I get a teaching job, my feelings will change but as of now, I don't feel detentions are the most effective way of handling a bad situation with a student. Carole Johnson
Personal Testimony I work in a junior high school(we decided to not be a middle school). I see students showing off the fact that they got a detention. I have also seen students try to get a detention because their friend got one. I do not know what the best alternative for detention would be. I always thought that the school should have a policy that would put the student on a "social" probation if they get a certain number of detentions. What this probation would include: not being able to attend an afterschool activity (game), no dances, or if they are in a sport- prohibit time in the game. N Jessup
Personal Testimony: I really feel that if detentions do not match the crime, they are useless. If a student receives a detention and misses out on playing in a basketball game or going to see a football game as a result, as long as they were planning on taking part in these events, it can work to an advantage. If a student does not clean up his mess repeatedly in an art classroom, the detention should be to stay after school and clean up the entire left-over mess-including those from other students. Jessica Arnold
Detentions have their place in the classroom management toolbox of teachers. They can be so controversial (just look at all the personal testimony this subject generates!), but they are just a tool like Time Outs or a seat change. Detentions are most effective when they are combined with parent contact and that is one reason why some teachers avoid using them. They are inconvenient, but they can be powerful if the time after school is well-used.
My daughters' first year, at her high school, she recieved 15 detentions not for behavior and the biggest thing she had done wrong was be late and I did not mind when she stayed for those detentions. My daughter recieved detentions for getting lost and not sitting in her seat when the ball rang, for running out of paper, for her pen not working and she did not have another one. I said I did not mind if she got a detention when she was late, but that is not quite true. Once she had a (monthly) accident and had to return home and change and the biggest problem was, when it was cold, she could not be out in the cold long because she has reynaud's syndrome. I had given the school the information and they were supposed to arrange for transportation but they lost the paper. I fought with the school a lot and I did notice that about 90% or more of the students in detention were black. My daughter felt hopeless and like she was "bad" when this was never the case. The school maintained that they were preparing them for real life. This was not real life, this was a control issue and it was having a negative effect. The school feels my daughter is polite and very nice. If the same rules applied to the school employees and they were punished when they lost papers, were late or did not do their job correctly, I bet they would fight back.They were not allowed to do work because they had to stay in class to be given the privilege of doing work. Teresa Hibler
When I was in high school (20 years ago), detentions were served after school, the day you received them. This served to deter students from continuing an unwanted behavior because of the inconvenience it caused the student and parents who had to pick up a student that could not ride the bus. The detentions I received were for my lack of responsibility (I didn't always complete my Algebra homework). I felt that my punishment was justified and I fixed my problem so I would not lose my after school social time and feel the wrath of my dad. In the school I work at, detentions are served before school, the student has to arrive 40 minutes early (7:30 - convenient for the parents who work at 8:00), and they have 2 days to serve them (to make sure it works into their schedule). Notice my sarcasm. I feel detentions are ineffective because they are made too convenient. Students are not going to mind getting up a bit earlier and parents may not get upset about their child's issue if it doesn't effect them. Of course there are students and parents who do not like the idea of any sort of reprimand and may get one, but it won't happen again....got to love them. Chris Snodgrass
Working at the same school that is mentioned above, I would agree that in our school, detentions are too convenient. Besides being given 2 days in which to serve them and being in the morning, parents are not contacted by the administration when their student receives a detention. Therefore, many students just lie to their parents and say they need to go to school early to work on homework or makeup a quiz. Some parents never know that their child is receiving detentions until a bigger issue comes up. I like to give personal detentions. The student has to come to my room and during that time we talk about why he/she received the detention and how we'll work to resolve the misbehavior. These personal detentions seem to work better than the school-wide ones. Amy Higgins
I only used detentions for those students who needed a "wake up" call about their work. For example, I had a very bright student who just wasn't getting his work done on time. I felt an after school detention would get my point across because his parent had to come in at the designated time and have a conference before he could be released. It worked and he rarely turned in late work after that. I found a detention only works for some students and the teacher has to know when it is appropriate. For students who misbehaved in class, I used other means other than after school detention such as sending them to another classroom where they were shunned (my fifth graders went to first grade). Sometimes, they had to spend their lunch hour/recess in the office or with me (yet, here again I had to make sure it wasn't a reward). S.Morrisette
In a lot of schools, detention is not much of a punishment. Having attended a Catholic high school, I received quite a few punishments for being out of dresscode. I actually enjoyed detention because it was before school so I had an opportunity to do homework that I did not want to do the night before or study for an upcoming test. Also, it was somewhat of a social hour. However, in my junior high, detention involved sitting alone in a study cubicle with nothing to do at all. That was a punishment. Dianne Craig
Personal Testimony (Warner Ferratier) During my third year of teaching, I used detention frequently, and found it to be very effective. I only gave detentions for specific behaviors, such as chewing gum in class, or arriving to class late. Detention always consisted of 15 or 30 minutes of doing custodial chores. I think that it was effective because it was perceived to be fair. At the time, I had the several children of colleagues in the class, and they received the same consequences as everyone else. The act of cleaning was something that all were equally able to do well, so that they could take pride in their work. It also made my students more aware of their space. They were less likely to mistreat the classroom because they knew that there was the possibility that they would have to clean it up themselves. I am sorry that school policy changed so that detentions are no longer served with the teacher who assigned the consequence.
I've been told it doesn't take much misbehavior for a middle school student to receive a detention of some consequence. In high school, I try to be straight with the kids, especially incoming freshmen. I ask them bluntly (speaking of teachers who seemingly give out an exorbitant amount of detention slips), "Do you want me to be that kind of teacher?" Immediately, students respond by exclaiming, "no!" So I calmly tell them that for me to NOT be that kind of teacher, they must NOT be the kind of student who would warrant a detention. I write up maybe 5 detentions all year. M. Uhls
Recently, during my observations in a middle school, I noticed that teachers used detentions in a way that allowed them to dictate the length of the detention. One of the nice things about this use, is that the severity of the problem may be matched to greater or lesser detention times. Such a use may help to alleviate some of the problems outlined above, especially the aspect that they are time consuming and that students recognize that they are keeping the teacher. In my observations though, I did notice that there needs to be some minimum detention that is effective. The teacher I observed with tried implementing 5 minute detentions, an amount of time that in most cases seemed hardly bothersome to many of the students. Timothy Zorn
the experiences I have recieved while punishing students with detentions were not worth my 15 minutes. While a student teacher in a rural school, the detention was used for EVERYTHING. Then, when the student stayed after school, they did cleaning for the teacher, talked to the teacher about the next football game or got into an argument with the teacher about a bad call at an Illini game. when I started subbing I avoided detentions like the plague. I have issued a few, but I have also considered that there are many kids who would be just as happy to stay at school a bit longer than to go home to a bad family situation. - DHeater
As a teacher, I rarely use detentions for punishment. I have found other ways of dealing with conflicts between members of our musical organizations. However, I feel that giving detentions are a way of making the student reflect on his or her adverse behavior. Detentions that function as study halls are not effective. For a detention to be effective, the student must reflect on his adverse behavior and then pay the consequences (the detention). --Chris Royer--
An effective type of detention that I have found is the Saturday Detention. In this type, students are required to report to the school for two hours on a Saturday morning, supervised by two compensated teachers. Students are required to work through the two to four hours, and cannot sleep or communicate with others. This separates the students from the general population to serve the detention (as opposed to the noise and chaos of the after-school method) and is an effective deterrent from students cutting class, and being tardy. S.Luxbacher
Yes, I believe that detentions can be a good thing, until they get to the point that the students doesn't even care any more. In my junior high experience, I had students that would get upset if the topic of detentions even was brought up. Then I have the students that were trying to collect them and see how many they could get in a school year. They are always the exteme. It would be nice to be able to find an inbetween that would help the students understand consequences without having to be negative. In my school, if the student is suspended from school, they are allowed to make-up the missed work. I remember that when I was in school, if we were suspended we got zeros in all of the subject areas for the day. I think that is harsh, but a good lesson, but we still need to find something that will help the students rather than hinder them. -Jeremiah Kramper-
Detentions are great tools used. However, detentions have its flaws. Between the school inconsistency, the inadequacy of opeation. Off students find a way to expose those flawas. The detentions I like are the "work details." These detentions make the studen t responbile by picking up trash and help maintain the school----C. Graham
I work in an elementary school and we had a handful of students who were not responding well to the various forms of positive behavior interventions and different forms of discipline. We instituted detentions beginning the second half of the school year. We ended up noticing that the same few students were the ones staying after school and because of that, it did not seem like lessons were being learned. It was difficult as well because we started detentions in the middle of the year and the students were confused as to the "rules" and the teachers were also overwhelmed by the extra paperwork and time they needed to invest. Unfortunately we are not continuing what we started since it did not seem to work for our school. JP
I am a high school math teacher and have found that detentions are most useful during my last hour of the day. My students at this time are so antsy for school to be over, that they have trouble concentrating on the lessons. On the days when they are really squirrely, I keep track of the time that they have wasted in class and make them stay after school for that amount of time. They have never incurred more than 45 seconds of detention time. But, as soon as they see me watching the clock and keeping track of time, they try to get their peers back on track and the lesson can continue as normal. In this example the punishment seems to happen at the point when I give the detention, not while they actually serve the detention. Jenny Circello
I use detentions at the middle school level and they are sometimes quite effective. That is, when the kids that normally do not get detentions get them for doing something inappropraite. For instance, I gave out 2 after I got sub note that stated these 2 boys behaved inappropriately. The boys did not like getting the detnetions, but their moms later told me they sure got all their homework done and that was cool. Our principal has a meeting with every student that gets a detention and kids usually get more fear out of that than serving the actual detention. -Missy Legutki
I think it is appropriate to ask students to make up classroom time that was lost or wasted because of in appropriate behavior in class or being unprepared for class. As a teacher, I believe that what I have to share with students during a class period is important and worthwhile, and if they impede the learning that takes place during the scheduled class period than they need to make it up. It is my way of saying that every student deserves the opportunity to learn in our classroom and if you cannot support that then there will be a consequence. With that being said, I think a teacher has to do a whole lot of work to make a classroom environment where the students buy in to this, and that does not hinge on the use of detentions but rather on creating classrooms in which all students are engaged. (That is the hard part of teaching).E. Remington
There are quite a few people who agree that during a detention, the student should be actively thinking about his/her misbehavior. I would prefer to call a detention a "conference" instead. Students would not need a time limit, but would need to prepare to stay after school on a particular day to discuss what the misbehavior was, what effect it has on him/her, the teacher, and the class, and how the behavior will be modified in the future. ~Mindy Waters
At our high school one of the biggest problems we faced with detention was getting students to serve them in a timely fasion or to serve them at all. What would happen was the consequence would simply double if the detention wasn't served. Many of our students would accumulate an outrageous number of detentions and the issue became a joke! Now we are on a step program that increases in severity. If a student does not serve a detention it first doubles. If the detentions are not served they move to the next step and are given in school suspension but they are still required to serve both detentions. The steps keep increasing until the last step which could invove expulsion from school. - L. Gowler
I think detentions if done correctly are a great way for children to be held accountable for their actions in the school setting. I have had students that get a detention in my class and after serving it, I will never have a problem with that student again. You can sometimes have students that do not care that they get detentions and then you have to add in suspensions and longer detentions (four hour Saturday detentions). The important issue will always be that students have to feel accountable for what they do (or possibly not do) at school. -Nick Hartz
Detentions should be a last resort type of punishment. I think too many teachers write up students from lack of other ways to discipline them. A note to younger teachers, Principals don’t look kindly on teachers who write an extremely high amount of detentions. They think that the teacher lacks control of their class. A teacher sometimes needs to be creative in finding a discipline for the action. If detentions are given, I think the parent should be inconvenienced to pick their child up after, or bring them in early. Our school makes the principal take the kid’s home after detention if the parent can’t get them. If the parent has to go out of their way to get their child, there will then be pressure from the parent to the student. Otherwise many parents will just look at it as one more hour of Free baby sitting! – Dale Donner
One aspect of detentions at my school heavily influences their use. Students are expected to serve their detentions with the teacher who issued them. However, often times this means that the issuing teacher themselves must work late in order to monitor the detention. I do not agree with this system, I do not believe that there should be a negative consequence for the teacher, and I have seen the effects of this policy firsthand. At my old school, a teacher was paid to monitor a detention room, and I think that worked much better. -S. Yunker
When I was a student in school, getting a detention was pretty much the worst thing ever. I only had one in my lifetime and was really upset that I even got one in the first place--for being late to class! I had never been late before. Anyway, today, students do not seem to be affected by detentions, at least not to the extent that my peers and I were. Okay, yes, a very small number of students still do get incredibly emotional when they are issued a detention from what I have observed in my three years as a teacher, but not the majority. Many students don't even come to the detention. Instead, they will wait until they receive the next consequence which is a Saturday detention or an in-school suspension. There are really no guidelines for detentions either, except for a central detention when the students are required to write the school rules twice and stay after school for an hour in a designated "central detention" room where a teacher has been assigned to work for the week without extra pay. This is ineffective though because many of the same students are back in central detention again. There is also not a lot of consistency amongst the teachers in issuing classroom or central detentions. Lots of teachers do not want to stay half an hour after school to supervise the students so instead they issue them a central detention for something that was really a classroom offense. To me, that is not right. I do not give students a central detention unless it is something that is an all-school rule like gum chewing or doing something in class that is majorly inappropriate. Well, in the latter case I'd just write the student a referral to the office and then he'd receive a central detention anyway. Luckily, I do not have to write many detentions, only seldomly because I use detentions as a last resort...usually if they did not do the first consequence I gave them for their misbehavior which is to write me lines, "I will not interrupt the class," for example, 50-100 times. Overall, it seems that this issue is a concern at many schools and that there needs to be more effective ways of disciplining students who misbehave to this extent. ~K. Kleckauskas
In my first year of teaching I had to do dentention duty. I really didn't want to waste my time sitting quietly in a room while the students finished their homework. The principal gave me permission to take the students to my classroom. I had them tightening music stands, cleaning percussion equipment and much more. I don't believe I saw the same students in detention again. M. Rice
I have found detention to be a fairly inefficient use of both teacher and student time. In my brief experience as a teacher I found that I had more luck with adjusting a student’s behavior with a simple private conversation. For those students who refused to listen, or who were a constant distraction in the classroom, I used the principle. I never liked giving detention because I thought it was detrimental to the student-teacher relationship. I always tried to build my students sense of personal responsibility and I felt like detention gave them an easy way to shrug off the importance of learning activities. Yes, detention really does work for some students, but I think other forms of intervention are far more effective and efficient. – Jeremiah Johnson
At my school, we have a very clear system of consequence and rewards. The first two consequence are just verbal warning, but if you get a third one you get one hour detention. This involves sitting in the hall in rows like assembly, cept you leave your bags etc at the front. And sit in silance for an hour. That worked cos i only went once.
Detentions effectivity lies in if they can be carried out effectively. If the entire school is not on the same page on what consistutes a behavior problem that deserves a detention, then students dont' take it as seriously. I've had students who have received multiple referrals and detentions and are happy to be out of the classroom and have developed relationships with deans and secretaries that they almost want to get sent there. C. McCulley
Detentions do not work. I see the same students making the same choices everyday even when they know a detention will be the consequence. At my school students are given detentions for being tardy a certian number of times. Has this chagned the number of times they are late. No. The students continue to not show up on time and another form of punishment is needed. Nic D.
I usually give detentions for tardies. Fortunately I teach classes during the lunch hours, so if a student has to serve a detention I allow them to eat lunch in the cafeteria for a few minutes and then they have to come sit in my class the rest of the time. This is especially ideal because the student then gets to hear the lesson twice that day! Also in this scenario the student is being inconvenienced (and a bit embarrassed), and yet my time is not affected. J. Adams
[edit] Web References
Detention: the law and how to apply it in the United Kingdom
[edit] References
Batchelder, H. H. (1964). Corrective measures, punishment and discipline. In J. S. Kujoth (Comp.), Teacher and school discipline (pp. 134-145). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Collins, M. & Dowell, M. L. Discipline & due process [Electronic version]. Thrust for Educational Leadership, 28, 34-6.
DiLullo, L. (2004). Appropriate conduct. Principal Leadership (High School Ed.),4, 27-29. Retrieved September 29, 2004, from Education database.
Larson, K. G. & Karpas, M. R. (1963). Effective secondary school discipline. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Wolfgang, Charles H. Solving Discipline and Classroom Management Problems. (2001). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
