The Story That Started My Journey

I was just a mother visiting a school.... 

While visiting an elementary school in Kemah, Texas, I witnessed firsthand what I found in my research to be common practice used in this country to maintain school order for the sake of academic success.  During my visit, I sat next to two young boys in the school’s office.  The two unruly boys, referred for discipline, were squirming in their seats when the school secretary unpleasantly said to another office assistant, “I know what will “fix” them.”  She then glares at one of the two boys and says, “Do you want to go to the room?”  The two boys immediately sat straight up.  Not fully realizing the situation, I gathered my belonging and left.  Upon a second visit to the same school, I heard a boy’s cries and screams coming from a back office.  “No, no, don’t put me in there!” he yelled.  This time, I questioned the unpleasant secretary and was told that children were placed in a room as punishment for various indiscretions.  Upon further investigation, I realized the room was not just any room.  The room was a closet size room with carpeted walls, enclosed by a heavy door and a tiny window on the door.  I was told that some children sat in the room for hours. Some children were made to eat lunch in the tiny room.  Sometimes the door was shut and sometimes the door was locked.  The room was used for punishment as well as a place for “distracted” children to complete their work.  I walked by the room and saw a small desk, a lunch tray, and a small, brown skinned boy staring into the carpeted wall. 

The school implementing such drastic discipline measures is part of a top notch, well sought out school district in South Texas.  It is a beautiful, “blue ribbon” school that serves many of the districts, low income, ESL students and it stands in an upper middle class neighborhood.  I questioned the discipline procedure with the nice, attractive, well dressed, well educated principle of the school and her response was, “What are we supposed to do with children who misbehave or “refuse” to do their work?  This is all we have.”  I sat and stared at her for a moment, fully realizing that I did not have the answer to her question. The only thing I did know was that my gut told me there was something better for these children. With that in mind, my response was, "I don't know what you are supposed to do, but I will find out." 

This incident started my five year education journey. I was blessed to have amazing professors at the University of Houston Clear Lake; they gave me the opportunity to devote nearly my entire graduate career to effective school discipline and social emotional learning.  Today, I stand confident that I have the answers, and I will use every bit of energy that God gives me to educate parents, teachers and administrators for change.   

I do not fault the nice lady because it was apparent to me that she did not have ill intentions.  Nevertheless, her lack of creative solutions to promote academic achievement and her reliance on outdated traditional methods of discipline have been proven by an extensive amount of research to be ineffective and demoralizing to children. They have also been proven costly to humanity and society.  With this in mind, parents and educators have a moral and ethical obligation to work for change.  We must make the decision to hold ourselves and each other to higher standards for the greater good of mankind.