teach by grace

i was sitting in a meeting last week. nothing exciting, just a normal weekly CAT meeting with all the other connections teachers. the topic of our dress code came up, which is a touchy subject around here. i work in Snellville, GA, and just by driving through the city, you can see the culture that is alive here. the thing we fight the most is saggy pants. it is the style of the day for the young men to sag their pants below their butts at times. this is against our dress code. it is inappropriate and honestly, the students who do this look like thugs. so this is what we are discussing in our meeting.

i work with several older generation teachers, some of which are on their way to retirement. it is my impression that these teachers are the "strict disciplinarian" type teachers who are used to keeping students "under their thumb." of course they were ranting and raving about the current trend of the saggy pants and the blatant disregard for rules the students show by sagging. i started thinking about how the students respond to these teachers and their discipline tactics. i also thought about my first nine weeks, and how i tried to use this disciplinary approach. the students did't respond to this. in talking to one of my eighth grade classes (one of my worst to date) about the discipline at our school. i asked them if there was any consequence at our school that they "feared." their answer was a resounding no. they don't care if they get suspended, because they get to make up the work when they get back. they don't care about referrals, because those only lead to suspensions. they don't care about conduct cuts because those only lead to referrals. do you see why they don't care? no "real" consequence. so i changed my approach to discipline: i began to give grace.

i no longer give conduct cuts and referrals. if there is a situation that i must deal with, i talk to the student about it. this builds relationships. the relationship builds respect. it's my belief that the paradigm of our students is changing. the days of stern discipline procedures, i believe, are gone. students don't respond to that. they clam up and shut you out. (some students will do this anyway, but you can't win 'em all.) i have found that students respond really well to this approach. students are actually talking to me about things other than health stuff. i had a student stop me in the hall yesterday to tell me he was being panelled, which means he might be expelled from school for a year. this is one of my "at-risk" students who i initally started my grace approach with. he doesn't talk to any teacher other than to make a smart aleck comment or something. i got to talk to this student about the decision he made that led him to his panel. all brought about by a relationship built through grace.

i wondered if the "staunch disciplinarian" paradigm will ever disappear as the student populus changes. we'll see...