October 17, 2014

Is This Working?

Stories of schools struggling with what to do with misbehaving kids. There's no general agreement about what teachers should do to discipline kids. And there's evidence that some of the most popular punishments actually may harm kids.

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Transcript

A student at Lyons Community School in New York does an exercise before a student "circle."
Adrianne Mathiowetz

Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

Prologue

When it comes to disciplining young people, teachers are winging it. We ask middle school teachers all over the country to walk us through how they get a kid to take his hat off. The book Ira mentions is called Building a Better Teacher by reporter Elizabeth Green; it’s eye-opening in a number of ways. (5 1/2 minutes)

Act One

Time Out

We start out exploration of discipline and schools at the very beginning … in preschool. Tunette Powell is a writer in Omaha and mother to JJ and Joah. (17 minutes)

By

Tunette Powell

Act Two

The Guinea Pig Becomes the Scientist

About 20 years ago, a group of educators launched one of the biggest recent experiments in American education when they started creating charter schools designed for poor, minority kids. The idea was to create classrooms that are rigorous and strict. We talk with a student named Rousseau Mieze, who grew up in a school like that and then became a teacher. (10 minutes)

Act Three

The Talking Cure

We spend a semester in a public school in New York City called Lyons Community School. Lyons is trying to avoid suspensions, detentions and basically all other forms of traditional punishment. (21 minutes)

By

Chana Joffe-Walt

Song:

“Education” by The Kinks

Photos

By

By

Song:

Lyons Community School

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