Talk:Detentions
From WikEd
As a junior high teacher, I believe in detentions. Detentions are to detain the person who has committed a wrongdoing in order to deter the behavior. To detain a young person because of their behavior, lack of responsibility or insubordinate actions is appropriate. They are old enough to know better especially after we have gone over the school guidelines(rules)booklet. I use half of the detention time to clean the room or fix something broken. We work together, so cleaning or fixing is not the punishment. The other half of detention time is used to discuss the reason they are in detention. We come up with a solution to deter this incident from happening again(compromise). Usually, I allow them 1 time per week to ask me to go to the restroom, if they were late to class because of restroom or locker issues. They have 5 core teachers and if they need to use it more than once per week, they must ask another teacher. I try to encourage them to use study hall and lunch time, which are spaced appropriately in our schedule for restroom/water breaks. We teachers use those times, why not the students. I tell them, "Lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part!" Gum is an issue at my school because all our floors are carpeted. It is a bear to get gum out of the carpet, ask our janitors. Therefore, I enforce the school rule-- No Gum-- by giving a detention to the student who has it in their mouth. One year, I did not enforce it and it became a total disaster. There was gum everywhere. By enforcing the No gum rule there is little abc (already been chewed) gum around. Small things can become big if not monitored in the early stages. It takes time and work because I must stay after school with all my detentions. Other detentions my students receive are due to their behaviors when I have a substitute. For some reason, students believe they can disrespect substitutes. We must instill this great quality of respect in our students along with the subject matter. And my last reason for giving detentions is when the students do not bring their supplies to class (book, paper and pencil/pen). When a student walks in my room totally unprepared, it is as if they are saying I am coming to class only to talk, play or sleep. This is why I stand at my classroom door to greet each student as they cross the threshold, I am looking for their supplies in hand. Sending them back to their locker is the key. Of course, they are now late to class, detention for tardy. But now they can participate in class.
