Together

 I think I mentioned that a new school year is beginning. Each time we round this corner, there are days of preparation that go into starting over. As much as we would like to believe that we have seen and done it all, there are plenty of reminders that need to be inserted in all of our educator brains to help ensure a productive voyage to next August when we will crank it over again.

One of those reminders is that of Restorative Justice. If you have never heard of this school of thought, I point you to my local chapter of the folks who are working to break the cycle of violence and incarceration that has pervaded in our cities and towns for far too long. If this sounds like bleeding heart gobbledygook to you, I would only encourage you to think about how you responded to being spanked or sent to your room as a child. If you immediately stopped crying and came to the crystalline realization that your parents must have a point and of course you should "do the right thing," then maybe this school of thought isn't for you. If you continued to cry and grumble and stomp off into some required isolation, certain that "nobody understands," then you might start to grasp what we're trying to do here. 

Just a few days ago, I witnessed a first grader being told that he was going to lose his recess after he continued to stick his tongue out at a classmate. The woman who made this decision for the not-quite six year old was acting on behalf of the classroom teacher, believing that she was creating order and that surely this boy would keep his tongue in his mouth when he returned from watching his friends enjoying their time on the playground. If you don't behave, you don't get recess. Seems simple enough. 

Too simple. The chances that that little boy will remember exactly why he had to sit on the bench for fifteen minutes after those fifteen minutes are up are slim to none. Instead, having a conversation on the way out to recess with the owner of the offending tongue and the children who were affected by this breach of etiquette with an eye toward making understanding about why this behavior is something we could all do without as well as making a practice of connecting whatever restoration needs to take place. In this case, the simple apology to the adult who had a problem with this kind of childish behavior from (checks notes) a child would probably be sufficient. 

It's a teaching moment. Hearing both sides and making sense of a situation is what educators do. Suspending a kid because he "doesn't know how to behave" is shirking the responsibility for teaching that kid "how to behave." 

And here is the reason why the convicted felon's plan to "restore order" in America's cities is doomed to failure. Millions of dollars are being spent to apprehend and prosecute "bad guys." Not a penny is being committed to social programs that could help keep crime from happening before it starts. Locking people up does not impact the reasons why they are being locked up. Just like the time you spent sitting on the edge of your bed after you were sent to your room, wishing your parents were dead, In most cases, your parents didn't die, and you "learned your lesson." But what if that lesson was what happens to you when you do things right? And what about the people you hurt with your notions about interior decorating with crayons? Maybe helping mom and dad clean up the mess and learning all the places where crayons can be completely valid. 

Letting everyone in on the process is how we grow stronger. Together.