LETTER: Debate rages on over school discipline
Many are the paragraphs that have appeared in the Review-Journal lately — both on and off the editorial page — on the subject of classroom discipline. The exact role the school must play to preserve a “learning environment” in the classroom and how to deal with unruly students are the subject of much debate.
But what about the parents’ role and what their children are taught before or during the grade school and middle school years?
Those of us who attended grade and middle school during the 1950s, ’60s or before will well remember that the worst punishment the school could impose was to send a note home, to be signed by a parent, describing your transgression. The most dreaded report came not at the end of each semester, but during a parent-teacher night at your school.
One is given the impression that, in the 21st century, school has become just another form of day care in all too many households instead where children learn the skills and values to succeed. Parental involvement in a child’s learning process should be the real subject of this debate.
