Tools of traditional school discipline often included three-part forms, detention slips, file cabinets, paddles, and other such 20th century mainstays.  These tools supported systems designed to fit the particular school or district they were used in.  Discipline programs tended to be reactive and punitive in nature.  Implementation of the program was often haphazard and incomplete, a characteristic still very common in schools today.

It is important to recognize the distinction I am suggesting above between these distinct facets of an overall strategy for optimizing a school discipline climate.  The tools are used to enable the system that support the program in its implementation.


Without explicit attention to each of these distinct facets, an optimized discipline climate can only be achieved by chance.  Who wants to rely upon chance with something as foundational to school success as an optimized discipline climate?

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This is blog entry #2 of an unknown number of coming blog posts providing information aimed at improving a school's efforts to promote appropriate student discipline.  Click the number to the right to view the prior entry: #1.