Growth, Not Punishment

It comes as no surprise that these schools—so dedicated to ethics, reasoning, and learning—view poor choice-making as yet another opportunity for growth. Their disciplinary approaches serve as vibrant, literal enactments of the commitment to the values, community, and truth-seeking that this study examines.

Connection: Students are succinct about trust in these learning environments. “We’re given a lot of freedom, so you have to be ethical,” says one at a suburban boarding school. “[You have] freedom until trust is broken, then you get rules.” We noted motivation and pride in students’ attitudes to this approach. Many students mention the sharp contrast to more traditional discipline. In other schools, as one student notes, adults “assumed you were going to do something wrong, then increased responsibility if you didn’t. Here they assume you’re going to be responsible.”

Description: The schools we studied have developed processes to respond to wrongdoing that focus on learning rather than on punishment. All the schools in our study address disciplinary issues through a student-led and frequently student-elected council of some kind. Some of these judiciary boards are composed entirely of students. In other cases, adults also serve but are often out-numbered by the students.

Consistently, those interviewed describe these student roles as highly lauded and sought-after positions, and the student election as a process that generally works. That is, students elected are not necessarily the most outgoing or popular, but they tend to have reputations of high personal responsibility. Adults and students have similar explanations for this phenomenon. When facing a judicial board, students really want reasonable people listening to their case. They need people of integrity, not necessarily friends.

The judicial group recommends consequences to fit the crime, and students in several of these schools are tasked with designing creative community service-type activities that ensure the message hits home. The point of discipline is learning. Students are held accountable for their behavior, but as one school head explains, “You punish the sin, not the sinner.” At another school, a faculty member comments, “We say from the beginning we’re open to making mistakes. We’re here to guide you. The idea isn’t to embarrass. It’s more, ‘What is the root cause?’” Another faculty member shrugs and smiles. “This is a laboratory,” he says, “We’re all making mistakes.”

The dominant focus of these judicial boards is evidence of progress, particularly heightened awareness about how individual choices impact the school at large. Students mention that frequently the group asks “how a disciplinary measure affects the community….how it instills morals and ethics and establishes a real community.” At several schools, students and faculty mentioned being more interested in progress made than in the original wrongdoing. “It’s really about what you do when it’s time to face the music,” one faculty member explains. “We’re forgiving, but we look for the act of taking responsibility, stepping forward and being honest when they’ve made a mistake.” Another teacher notes that “our honor code is like moral guidelines for life. It’s not so much what you’ve done, but how you respond—what that choice brings out about your character. We emphasize that you have to be responsible for your own actions. If you’re willing to change, you’ll get support.”

Interestingly, rules and regulations play a role of varying prominence from campus to campus in this study. At some, there is a strong emphasis on kinds of infractions, associated demerits, and the system of enforcement, all of which strongly feature in students’ descriptions of the way their school works. At others, rules form a background framework and students hardly mention them. “It’s subtle but powerful: the school doesn’t have a lot of rules,” one head explains. “We give students minimal structure and let them deal with it.”

But in all cases, the disciplinary process is grounded in moral reasoning and sensible, caring response. “[We] want it to be a discussion,” one teacher explains. “If you make a mistake, it’s always an educational conversation.” No wonder students describe their judicial process enthusiastically rather than cynically. One student volunteers, “I think I’ve become more reasonable here. I’ve become stronger in my decision-making [because of the emphasis on reasoning].” Another remarks, “I feel safe here. You know they’re just looking out for you.”

Replication: The following are some specific practices or recommendations about approaches to discipline from the schools we studied:

Copyright 2007 The Institute for Global Ethics