You can call it an adversarial, consequential, blame-based, real-world or responsibility focused system of dealing with student conflict and wrongdoing if you’re really into faffing around with words to make an idea sound productive.
But whichever way you slice it, variations on ye olde “crime and punishment’ model have been prevalent in Australian schools for well over 200 years now. Many of these versions have been mandated by departments/systems and, in other cases, relics have bobbed up in times of challenge, even in schools who claim to be relational or restorative in their approach.
My best guess is that 200 years of projecting these practice habits onto the national teaching psyche is hard to shake.
Sometimes it can also seem too much like hard work to to start all over again and ‘unlearn’ that sanction-based approaches are ethical, or even useful, when working with young people.
That is, unless you’re Romaine Park Primary School in Tasmania.
The staff there are only just commencing their unlearning journey and also their relearning of an authentic and practical restorative practice methodology.
But they’re reporting that students have taken just ten days to commence independently requesting our 9-minute P3P3F3 method for repairing harm and taking responsibility.
I think the lesson here is that the trip from the old model to the new is shorter and less arduous than you think.
I think it’s also that your school’s unlearning journey starts with a simple reckoning that 200 years is long enough for the old system and its thousands of reinvented cousins to prove their worth.
Keep fighting that good fight,
PS. If you knew it would only take ten days to start turning around the way your students repair harm and take repsonsibility for their actions, would you give it a go? Can’t hurt to find out more here.
Want to subscribe to Adam’s Home Truths? Simply subscribe here.