Punishment in Education

-- By SarahShaikh - 22 Feb 2024

After our discussion on the first day of class on theories of punishment and if punishment in the United States truly serves its supposed deterring function, I find myself still confused. On one hand, I agree that punishment will never deter absolutely everyone. Does that mean it has to in order for it to be effective? Is it enough that it deters to a point? On the other hand, in a world with no punishment, I empathize with a victim who perhaps sees her abuser free in the world. I think these are all fair questions, but our discussion in class turned my attention to punishment in another setting, one every one of us was familiar with. The classroom.

It seems to me this introduction diffuses more than it concentrates the reader's attention. Perhaps it would be better to begin with what you are writing about, rather than what you aren't?

Childhood Education and Barriers to Higher Education

Childhood Education

A child’s education does not begin when they step foot in a kindergarten classroom or even possibly a preschool classroom, it starts with their family. It starts with their economic status, their race - a whole slew of factors they have no control over - that decide where they go to school in the first place. I think this preliminary choice that is taken out of the hands of almost every child is certainly crucial to understanding how injustice perpetuates itself. However, this paper will attempt to ignore that and instead focus on how punishment in classrooms can perpetuate the system of inequality.

If there is an idea here crucial to the development of your larger thought, it needs to be put more succinctly.

One would not think it, but punishment starts in the very first year of a child’s education, in their preschool or kindergarten classroom.

It's not clear, here and elsewhere, whether you think "discipline" and "punishment" are synonyms. That's not the way we usually think about the behavior of parents dealing with toddlers, for example, where we tend to differentiate sharply between efforts to help small children learn to exercise self-control and the imposition of punishment. Shouldn't that be true also in thinking about the socializing function of primary school?

Students that display “disruptive behavior” in these early years are disciplined, perhaps more subtle than we perceive discipline to be, but discipline nevertheless through out of school suspensions or expulsions. Unsurprisingly, teachers tend to perceive this so-called disruptive behavior more in minority students than White students. As a result, Black elementary students are more likely to be disciplined. I think it is fair to say that this form of discipline has lasting effects and ingrains itself onto students, displayed in high school.

Perhaps it is "fair" to say, but wouldn't it be useful to have evidence? In most other contexts, we expect the behavioral repertoire of children to change as they grow from childhood into adolescence.

High School and the School to Prison Pipeline

Punishment does not stop there, if anything, it is likely much more developed and detrimental to students in high school. Again, minority students tend to receive these punishments more. Numerous studies finding that people tend to perceive Black girls as less innocent or police shootings of young Black children, confusing a toy for a weapon are similarly reflected in a classroom. The result of this is not simply being able to attend school for a few days. Not being present in the classroom means not being there when a teacher begins a new unit or being in a setting meant to develop your brain. This may at first simply result in poorer performance in school. The longer effects might be lower grades, SAT performance, all of which means less likelihood of attending college. Putting aside the academic consequences, the persistent force of punishment in schools leads to something much worse, incarceration.The school to prison pipeline is not a new phenomenon. Schools forcing children out of classrooms inevitably leads to actions that might at first land them in juvenile detention, but eventually this culminates in a prison sentence. Our class discussion on the incarceration system and prisons in America must again be highlighted here to shed some light on just how gross and impactful discipline in education can become.

At least some evidence relating high school suspension to subsequent criminal justice experience, and maybe some effort to avoid drawing correlations as causations, would be helpful.

How Law is used to perpetuate these barriers

As law school students, much of our discussion in classrooms ignores topics like this one. Criminal Law does not highlight the racial proportions of incarcerated people. We do not learn a substantial form of property in recent history, slavery, in Property. Yet, it is abundantly clear that law does not simply reflect the inequalities in our culture, it furthers them. So, as a law student, I think it is important that consider how policies are used to further punishment in schools.

Good. What the essay could most use, I think, is precisely that form of learning.

One of these policies is “zero tolerance”. Similar to the three-strike law, this means strict enforcement of school rules. Similar to the discussion on theories of why we punish, zero tolerance policies leave almost no room for addressing the root of the problem or substantial change. In contrast to the criminal justice system, it is even more unclear on what the reasons are here. Is it because a child’s behavior must be punished or is it meant to deter? If the former, it is extremely abnormal to believe that children understand enough to make the connection between their supposedly disruptive behavior and the school’s disciplinary measures. The same reasoning can be used to understand why punishment in schools does not deter either.

The best route to improvement, I think, is to put the net draft in touch with the not insubstantial literature on school discipline. Nothing in this draft suggests that any human being has even thought about this subject before, which makes it harder for you to do the learning that you and I agree above would be most valuable. You cannot teach to the reader what you have not yet learned yourself, and as the subject is of great interest to you it would be good to dive in. Showing the breadth of contemporary dialogue might be the best way to work, given the restrictions on space and the desire to show how your own ideas have been shaped by what you've read. Who are the leading writers on the subject; how has what they think about the issues affected your own developing opinion; and—if it is the case—how does what you've learned affect your own evolving views of what kind of your you'd like to become? I look forward to reading the next draft.

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