Supporting Learners to Thrive: Shifting Our Focus to What Matters Most

According to the Education Week article, Students Move Further Down School-to-Prison Pipeline With Every School Suspension, by Sarah D. Sparks, some forms of discipline can actually catapult repeat offenses. Ironically, punishments are developed to deter individuals from repeat offenses, but often, they don’t yield the desired results. Simply put, they’re ineffective. Sparks shares a quote from Thomas Mowen who led the study:

“I really expected to see that once we accounted for the effect of prior offending on future offending, the effect of suspension would go away,” said Thomas Mowen, an assistant professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University. “Actually what we found was almost the opposite. … It’s not offending that’s predicting future offending so much as it is actually that punishment that the child receives at school.”

The article proceeds to discuss that with each suspension, bonds are weakened between the child and school, and there is research to support it. You see, I believe that any form of punitive or exclusionary punishment has the potential to break bonds between a child and adult. We need to make a shift and begin supporting learners through challenging times, not add to their troubles. In July, 2019, I shared a blog post titled Proactive Approaches to Support All Learners: Moving Beyond the Behavior Chart, and share:

I absolutely believe that accountability and structure are essential, as are natural consequences. Whenever we can also redirect, draw on strengths and interests, and foster the conditions that empower learning within a culture of authentic relationships, we create an environment where learners have a prime opportunity to flourish.

Understanding Brain Function and Development

Natural consequences may help teach lessons, but punishments that are either punitive or exclusionary are completely different. Punishments may leave children/teens vying for control. If a child/teen is already struggling internally, at home, socially or academically, we are just layering on new problems that they’re not equipped to deal with. Our kids and teens desperately need us to lean in, not push back. They need us to understand that they aren’t always thinking rationally and require support to develop appropriate skills. I think of the individual who has faced trauma and comes to school seeking a safe place, but then acts out or makes a poor decision because they haven’t yet fully developed executive functions. Executive functions are what helps us to make informed-decisions, focus our attention, and self-monitor to name a few. The issue is that executive functions are activated in our prefrontal cortex (PFC), which continues to mature well into the 20’s (and perhaps 30’s). Take a moment to mull that over. 

As educators, we ought to have a basic understanding of how the brain learns and develops to best care for our youth, and keep it in the forefront of our thinking as we work with learners. Additionally, we all know that many of our learners come from homes where parents don’t necessarily understand this as well, so to me, that is why I’m so driven by neuroscience in education- the brain is pretty darn important. Anyhow, returning to how the brain functions, it’s the PFC that is often seen as the “reflective” higher brain in comparison to the “reactive” lower brain. 

Reflect on Your Experiences
Now, imagine a handful of kids you’ve worked with and their responses to adults when they feel any level of potential threat. Or, perhaps it’s just that they don’t feel in control or that their voice matters. Either way, I am willing to bet that the behavior most children exhibit could be categorized as either a fight, flight, or freeze response. Some of you reading might think this is basic knowledge, but all too often what adults see is disrespect. When adults feel disrespected, they are likely to feel compelled to show who’s boss and lay down the law by tacking on tougher consequences.

Sure, kids/teens are likely to seem disrespectful at some point (most likely in the comforts of their own home). However, what if we looked at the child and attempted to identify the trigger? How might we categorize their response? Did they demonstrate a fight, flight or freeze response? I’ve heard teachers share with colleagues (in disgusted tones) how a student responded to them. The result? The child was either sent to the principal or lost recess. Now, I’m not advocating that we allow kids/teens to be disrespectful. What I’m urging us to do is to get in touch with how the child is feeling and what the root cause might be. I’m asking that we pull back and avoid making assumptions about children or teens who may not even know why they did what they did that led them to making a poor decision. 

Being Proactive Yields Better Results

Furthermore, if we can be proactive and create spaces where each individual feels genuinely valued through relationships, we will almost always be better off. Lately, I notice a trend that some schools are taking proactive approaches. As an analogy, rather than constantly mopping up the water from a leaky faucet, they’re going to the source and just turning off the faucet. 

Some schools are instituting anything from meditation to increased recess time and are seeing a decline in behavior and an increase in focus. Who doesn’t desire those results in our schools? Personally, I don’t believe it’s that simple though. In my experience there has to be a combination of proactive approaches to best support learners. Both meditation and recess have their benefits and I think that it would be amazing for more schools to adopt either or both. Many schools have seen success through restorative practices as well. If we can begin with developing authentic relationships, provide choice in schools, leverage the strengths and interests of learners, and then ensure that we are carving out time for our kids/teens to meditate and get outside, we are really nurturing the whole child. For those of you who wonder when you’re supposed to teach, my response is this: 

By developing the conditions that are centered on the needs of learners, we can’t go wrong. Education isn’t just about learning content and testing for understanding. It’s about learning success skills, competencies, understanding how to socialize, and knowing how to self-manage through reflection. If we continue placing a greater emphasis on compliance, we will only continue to get what we currently have. If we are not seeing the desired change, it’s time to open our minds to new ideas and take a thoughtful risk to see if we can yield better results. 

Redesigning School For Learners Today

As a mom of an energetic, 12-year old boy heading into middle school, who thrives on helping others and completing hands-on projects that serve a purpose, I know how much he would benefit from breaks outdoors and even meditation (although it probably wouldn’t be his first choice). Like many middle schools in the United States, he’ll have ten, 40 minute periods during the day without any “free time” to decompress other than the lunch period. But, if you’ve spent any time in an average school cafeteria, you know you can’t really count that as time to decompress. If kids aren’t provided an outlet, many will find a way to create an outlet. What if instead we carved out opportunities that met that need as a proactive approach. It makes me wonder if we are seeing the children before us or if we are too ingrained within paradigms of the past? Many of our schools are not designed around the needs of our learners, they’re designed to meet mandates and an education model of the past. When will it become the norm to step back and examine how we can restructure our day so that learners thrive? 

Even Small Shifts Count

In moving forward, let’s begin to consider where we can create small shifts in our day. Look for opportunities to facilitate morning meetings, even if you can’t fit them in every day, they can still bring a class together and form connections. Perhaps you’re interested in facilitating team-building through adventure based learning and find value in debriefing to develop empathy and understanding in your learners. Carving out time for breaks in the day to play or explore promotes opportunities to decompress, connect with peers, and feel rejuvenated. There isn’t a one size fits all approach, but I encourage you to look at where you can make adjustments and continue growing from there. Ultimately, our goal is to create the conditions where all learners thrive and we can step back and see punitive or exclusionary punishments as a thing of the past. 

Maybe I’m a bit idealistic, but I envision a world where kids are engaged in meaningful learning and are making an impact within their community and beyond, with the support of educators who embrace the individuality of each child. My hope is that we can work alongside each individual to nurture growth and persevere through challenges- rather than resorting to punitive or exclusionary punishments. I want to see kids enthusiastic about going to school and learning, knowing that they have agency. I know there are schools in which this is the norm, my biggest question is what is holding others back from doing what’s best for learners and pushing back on the way it’s always been done? Is it the systems? Because systems can be redone. We can’t afford to stand around and continue on the way we are or instituting punitive or exclusionary punishments when the research is clear. Any one of us can be the change.