The Elephant in the Classroom
When it comes to dealing with chronically disruptive students, everyone – administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, and social service providers – must operate from the “same page.” Keeping chronically disruptive students in the classroom, as opposed to removing them from classroom, isn’t an effective instructional practice. Although suspensions aren’t effective, no student has the right to take a room hostage or prevent a teacher from delivering a quality lesson. We have to discuss this phenomenon.
Every teacher in this country will attest to having a small percentage of students who aren’t prepared to learn. Moreover, these small percentages of students often prevent the larger majority from learning on a higher level. Is it fair to the large majority of students to lose instructional time because the teacher has to spend valuable time redirecting a severely disruptive student?
The go-to strategy of “calling home, “ or after school detention, isn’t always effective. For
