Help! How does discipline fit into a Classical Education?
Comfort Food ed. 4
Is your student attending a classical high school?
If so, you may have had occasion to ask your student why they have received a demerit.
It can be hard being a student. It can seem that when you step through the doors of your classical school, you step into a jungle of rules, an overgrown and heedless tangle of vegetation that trips you up no matter how carefully you step. But it need not be so.
The Banquet is here to explain the thinking behind the demerit system, how it effects morale, and how, when understood and enacted well, school discipline should support the wider mission of a classical school.
But before we dive in, know that a few new issues are in the cooker, including The Banquet’s first interview, highlighted in a new segment— Contemporary Canon— which will discuss works that are being written today that are conversant with the Great Books of yesteryear. I was very excited to have a chance to interview Jane Clark Scharl, a playwright whose one-act Sonnez Les Matines just played in New York. The play revolves around three historical figures: Ignatius of Loyola, John Calvin and Francois Rabelais, as they stumble into a murder mystery that draws from each of them meditations on guilt, sin, grace, and death. Join us as we dive into the wisdom and foolishness of our incarnate nature!
Speaking of wisdom and foolishness…
At its heart, a classical school should be helping to free students, leading them out of the narrow vista of their own time and place, to grander vistas, literally educating them (from ex - ducare “to lead out”) Whether schools realize it or not, the approach to discipline is the most tactile way the philosophy of the school is enacted for students. They may hear about justice and mercy, authority and power, the Common Weal and the Res Publica in class, but it is lived an experienced in the halls, among the student body and the laws that govern it. Only a very blind or foolish school would think that their discipline system is not intimately entangled with their mission. In fact, maintaining the discipline culture at the school is one of the most important aspects of fostering the student culture and fulfilling the greater mission of a Classical school, whether it be religious or not.
If you are a Classical school, (particularly a Socratic one), here are the top five things you should be doing to get your discipline system right!
1)Hammurabi had it right! Clearly articulate your rules and standards of behavior
Most schools make sure that discipline policies are clearly articulated at the outset, even touching on it during the admissions process, so that families are on board. You don’t need to erect a public monolith with your code engraved on it (though that would be both creative and impressive!) Post them on a website and send home a handbook for students and parents to sign and return. This creates a law code that both sides can appeal to.
2)Deputize the Teachers
Discipline should not fall to one individual, ideally. Instead the authority to have meaningful discussions, to model and behavior and, when necessary, to correct it should be given to all faculty and staff. In order for this to be effective, the entire faculty should be trained how to discuss infractions with students and parents, how to interpret and apply the handbook, and when to involve the headmaster or Dean of Discipline.
3)The Don Bosco method
At a Classical school, particularly a Socratic school, students are educated under the assumption that they have intellects capable of distinctions, and that they can rationally discuss ideas.
That education is undermined when we do not discuss infractions with the students. Every infraction that gets a demerit or worse involves a discussion. They need not be long: some infractions are simply alerting the student to a choice made without thinking. Given the chance, the student identifies the good that was threatened, a demerit is given, and the student does not do the behavior again. These one-on-one human interactions between students and teachers should not be confined to discipline. They should be daily occurrences—teachers should be mentoring, encouraging and listening to students, so that discipline flows from an already created relationship of trust and respect. Don Bosco spoke of this method, of presence, especially outside of the classroom, as the most powerful way to shape the characters of children in the long term. One of the best ways to do this is to develop a relationship with the student outside the classroom: playing sports or games with the students, or otherwise spending leisure time with them is the best way.
4)Formation, not compliance, is the goal
True growth cannot happen without freedom, which means that we actually want students at times to choose lesser goods so that they might learn the natural consequences of doing so. A student who has had the occasional demerit, especially for what I will label “good mischief,” is often far wiser than the student who scrupulously obeys every policy to the Nth degree. That student has proven good at obeying, but not good at thinking. Some students are happy to outsource their conscience to an external monitor. When that monitor is gone, though, the student is without a guide.
Formation occurs when students are allowed to question and, at times, disobey. The goal is gentle firm formation not 100% compliance. In keeping with this, do not create a surveillance state—do not have students inform on other students. Better approaches include encouraging student to name themselves, and publicly acknowledging the good that students are doing rather than rewarding bad behavior with attention. General punishment, where a class is punished for the deeds of one of its members, is blatantly unjust, and is to be avoided.
5)Have a no tolerance policy for No Tolerance Policies
Everyone hates Red Light cameras, and for good reason. The rules do not apply themselves. Teachers, Headmasters, Deans of Discipline must be a tempering and humanizing force in interpreting the law and applying it. Justice is general. Mercy is particular and requires a human intellect motivated by charity to apply it to the specific case. Without it, the law cannot be just. There should be few if any “automatic” punishments, or three strike rules, etc. There are two possible exceptions: tardies and basic uniform violations. These can result in discipline after a certain number of transgressions. However, even here a mitigating intellect should be able to interpret the law. It is wise to involve parents in both of these issues early on, as many times the student is not to blame, and the goal should be to get at the root of the problem.
Now, if you are a student or the parent of a student…
1)Understand the expectations of the school. If they send you a handbook to read, do read it, and read it with your student. Discuss anything that strikes you as off the wall but strive to understand why the rule is there. More often than not, it’s there for a good reason. Seek to be on the same page with the administration regarding policies-from haircuts to attendance, punctuality to dress code. Know that it is not a buffet to choose the rules you like and ignore the ones you don’t. There may be rules you are totally behind and rules you would rather not have or don’t fully understand, but you sign up for everything when you sign the handbook. Reach out if there is any confusion, especially during the admissions stage.
2)Know that your child is capable of wrongdoing (and know that your child is capable of growth). There are two extremes here-on the one hand, there is the family that is scandalized to think that their child could do any wrong. They cannot fathom that their child is different now, a few months into the year than they were at the start of school, or that they might behave differently with peers than at home. On the other hand, there are those who are mortified by their children’s mistakes and cannot see the child behind the bad choice. In both cases, the key is that bad behavior is often a snapshot, a single moment. It is neither destiny nor indicative of the student as a whole. More often than not, it is the result of thoughtlessness. The approach of both parents and school staff should be long-term character growth and increasing the student’s capacity for deliberation and concern for those around them.
4)Know that teachers and administration are trying hard to get it right; The more parents and teachers can work in tandem, the better. It produces better outcomes for students when they see moral authorities converge. That being said, there’s always room for growth. If a discipline situation leaves something to be desired from the administration, give constructive feedback. I have learned a great deal from the ideas of parents.
5)Stay informed- Talk to teachers, talk to your student. Most repeat discipline issues do not come out of left field. They are part of a larger pattern of behavior. That means that how one situation is handled may not address the underlying cause. Teachers see students in an arena that parents often do not. However, teachers are busy so don’t hesitate to send an email every once in a while asking what your teachers see as patterns or areas of growth. Teachers appreciate it.
5)Cellphones!
The less students are on their phones, the better. A “dumb phone” is an option but then so is having no phone at all, or a family phone that sometimes goes with the student and sometimes doesn’t but isn’t “theirs”.
The benefits to not having a pocket entertainment and communications device at the ready are manifold and splendid, but specifically regarding disciplinary concerns, one troubling behavior that is becoming more common is students uploading videos of the school on social media platforms, often while engaging in language or behavior that is defamatory, scandalous, dangerous or even criminal. The phones are difficult to track in places like the bathroom, where they are more likely to be used in ways that will lead to disciplinary action. Unfortunately, once a video is uploaded, it escapes the jurisdiction of the minor law code of the handbook and enters into the real world, where major real world consequences may apply. Often teens are unaware of these consequences.
What is good mischief?
Good mischief is the type of trouble that high school students ought to get into. They are naturally rambunctious, their minds are full of “what ifs”, and high spirits will often result in actions that are foolish, absurd, or off the wall. As long as the action is not done out of malice, and no harm ensues, these hijinks, should often be handled lightly.
Once, there were a couple of high school students who saw a particularly tempting muddy embankment, and seeing as they were already a bit dirty from normal recess play, could not resist the urge to slide headfirst down it, resulting in very dirty uniforms. The students still had a few classes left, and of course, the uniform is something to respect. The students earned detentions, and a talking to, and I asked them to write me a few paragraphs on what they had done. Though both apologized it was clear that the action was far closer to the wondering innocence and exuberance of the elementary puddle-jumper than the high school disgust for rules. These types of infractions are the kind that need to be handled well, and will be, if the relationship between the teachers and the students is a healthy one. The result is the type of experience that is looked on later in life with joy as a formative moment.
P.S. Thank you for your patience, Banquet subscribers! This past month has not been an easy one, and The Banquet had to take a pause so I could help my family through a difficult time. My wife lost her mother after a brief illness, and your prayers and well wishes have meant a great deal. Again, thank you.