*I originally posted this on the wrong blog, here is the post on the correct blog.
I’m sitting here at school this morning. Yes, it is a Saturday and yes, I am getting paid. However, the others who I am with are not getting paid to be here. Instead, they’re serving time.
Sitting here is made me think about myself and my behavior when I was in school. I remember the one time I had a detention and had to stay after school. I was in first grade and we had created a book that we were to take home to our parents. Well, another student had dared me to take my book apart and he did the same. Mrs. McIntyre was not happy about our behavior. My name along with 3 checks instantly went up on the board.
I begged and pleaded to not have to stay after school. It was a Wednesday and I had church that evening!! (My little first grade mind didn’t understand that there was about 4 hours between end of school and church.) I didn’t want to have to serve my time, even though I had done the crime. I stayed though and put the book back together.
Was I punished when I got home? I don’t remember. But, I think that one day scared me not to get into trouble again.
So why do we have so many students who are always in after school detention, suspended in and out of school, and have to attend an extra day of school. Is it a failure of the education system? Is it a failure of reaching the student? Is it a troubled home life?
I don’t think there is any one factor that makes this happen.
I can say that sometimes it’s just a lack in decision making one time that a student needs the one-time punishment and they will never been seen in trouble again. (Myself for example)
Those are the students I’m talking about though.
We all know who I’m talking about. They’re the students that teachers make comments about the student ending up in jail in the future. The student who is in detention every day after school.
What can we do for these students? Are they learning anything about why they are being punished or is it an expectation of them?
Yes, I said it. Do these students feel like they are expected to misbehave? If that’s the case, then we need to reach those students in a different way. We need to point out that we don’t expect them to be this way and that we have higher expectations for them.
Maybe we put them in detention because that’s the easy solution. “I don’t have to deal with them now”. Is that a thought? Does that happen?
What do you think? What can we do to help these students who are constantly “serving time” a school so that they do not make that their future?
Random Teacher Thoughts 
[…] I just realized that I posted on the wrong site. Here is the link to the correct “Time Served” post. […]
Exactly right. There is no “magic band-aid” that works for every student. We need to monitor the discipline record, and try other approaches for the kids that are constantly “serving time”.
Many of those kids are there because they are late to school or have had excessive absences. The question then becomes, if they are there for missing school aka missing instruction how is sitting there silently for for hours helping them gain lost instruction.
It can really be a self-fulfilling prophecy can’t it? The kid has always been trouble right? That kids is so disrespectful! Kid’s a punk, a thug, a whatever. So the student gets treated like their legacy up to that point. I think it’s a shame.
I think you have to give a kid a chance to have some success and then build on it. It might take half a year, a full year, but if the kid isn’t in my classroom, then I have no chance to reach them or turn their thinking about themselves around.
I don’t teach by threat of behavior report or detention, I teach with relationships. I don’t make ‘doing time’ part of their future, by working hard to make sure it isn’t part of a student’s present. We can do better.
Great post. Great questions.
.I have taught k through 12 in the Bahamas four years, I came to Jacksonville Fl. And had no transportation , my children then were living too close to ride the bus, they walked, 1/2 hr each morning. Once my son had to had i.s.s.p. I (out of town’r) never heard of such a thing.
How could my son be punished for my actions I thought. ( i did not wake him up in time, we did not walk fast enough each day etc. etc.) May I recommend a teacher with love and wisdom, use that detention time to give a “Lecture” on tardiness, and way to overcome it. or on misconduct etc. i would love to write a short interactive lecture on Students staying out of Detention,
However
Prevention is better than a good cure no matter how inexpensive.
leaving the after school or in school time out May I offer a tip for class room control. to eliminate misbehaving.
Tip 1. Students use their 5 senses …as do we all…for the disruptive student have him or her do the following.
1. stand
2. close their eyes
3.do not smile
if these three fail. then you appoint time with their parents.
I am in the process of writing a manual for my brand of child raising.
These behaviors can be traced back to the home. You need to be hand in hand with their parents. I would suggest a book I read during my early childhood training “Marva Collins way”
hope this helps.