School is out still, of course. But teachers I know are always in low-key planning mode, no matter the month. I stumbled up on an idea that seems better than a time-out and might be worth considering.
A high school student gets into trouble. Maybe they text during class, yell at a teacher, or skip a class altogether. Perhaps they start a fight with another kid. Whatever it is, they’re given detention for it. In one Maine high school, they’re given a choice of punishment: regular detention or a nature hike. Most kids are choosing to hike and it’s doing them good.
A counselor at Morse High School in Bath, Maine got the idea after attending an outdoor education conference. Leslie Trundy admits it’s not perfect. There are parents who believe in harsher punishment and think hiking is too soft. They’re refusing to allow their kids to do it. Some of the students still grumble about hiking even though they’ve chosen it. But others now say they dread detention less and enjoy nature more.
NICHOLAS (Student): “It makes me have to, like, walk. It makes you breathe heavily, obviously. And it feels like an accomplishment almost.” WSKG
Taking it Outside
The Morse Outing Club has been around for four years, going on 3.5 mile hikes. The counselor wondered whether she could get more kids interested in hiking by having them choose it as their punishment. Now that grade nines have been offered the choice of detention, some of the students have joined the club.
Trundy shared one of her best memories of hiking with these kids with the Maine Department of Education:
“Three boys sang “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys A-Capella as they crossed a bridge.” Maine DOE
Thinking Outside the Classroom Box
I’m trying to remember what punishments were given out in my high school. I was never sent to detention but I did get grief for talking too much. (SHOCKER!) I remember kids being made to sit outside the principal’s office or stand outside the classroom. It wasn’t constructive or useful. No one learned anything from it and the same kids got in trouble over and over.
It isn’t the way Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and the rest experienced detention in The Breakfast Club. Speaking of which, why did those kids have an all-day detention on a Saturday? How was that allowed? Schools have enough power over kids during the week. But on a precious weekend?! It’s just cruel!
But I Digress
Teachers have a difficult job. One woman I know who teaches very young children says they arrive like feral cats. They have varying degrees of discipline issues and some aren’t potty trained. She’s trying to teach some of them while pseudo-parenting others. Those students are benefiting from her patience but what happens in higher grades? Not every teacher is as caring or diligent. (Not everyone in ANY profession is good at their job.)
Giving a kid of any age a choice empowers them. It makes them feel in control, even if those choices are limited to two. School is difficult enough for many of them. I love the idea of letting them ‘walk it off’ and breathe in fresh air. It’s progress.
Do you remember the punishments handed out in your high school? And is there something you think now would have been more effective? Let me know in the comments.
In high school, you sat in a room for a period of time, can’t remember how long and if you wanted you could do your home work, which existed back then or stair at the walls.
Anything would have been more productive, but I can’t think of what that anything would have been.
High school and I weren’t on the best of terms, I was there but not really and I didn’t understand until much later after I lost my sight.
I like the idea of providing options.
I got suspended once — two days off school.
That was considered PUNISHMENT.
It was a extra weekend is what it was!
Exactly! They should have made you HIKE!