restorative practices

Participants in Restorative Practices Workshops at Peace Learning Center are asked to dig deep and reflect honestly about how discipline is working (or not working) in their schools or organizations.  One dean comments, "It's a total culture change. Sure, I can keep these kids out for three days, but there's still going to be a problem when they get back so that solution doesn't fix the problem." He goes on to explain that last year his school had 204 suspensions in 180 days of schools and this year they've only had seven suspensions. He explains that he has to be part of a lot of conversations with school staff asking them if their suggested consequence will “fix” the behavior.  That question seems to encourage thought, but when punishment and suspension are the only tool we’ve seen used to address challenging behavior, we need to do what we can to show people that there is an entirely different way of thinking about and responding to these behaviors.  One that not only allows us to get to the root cause of issues, but one that also can help us address disproportionality of discipline on students of color, unhealthy school culture, and the over-reliance of punitive discipline (among others). That is the world of Restorative Practices. Another woman jumps in, catching where he's going with his story, "Punishment doesn't have to be a part of our solution." "Yes," he says, as the rest