I love that this approach focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, while encouraging the offenders to take responsibility for their actions by repairing the harm they have done. Research has shown it to be a good system for restoring justice in the eyes of the victim while allowing the offender to make amends and accept responsibility for their choices.
I am particularly interested, as I teach elementary school. My students are old enough to understand the process of restorative justice, and young enough that the behaviors are usually not very serious in nature. This seems to lend itself well to this type of process. An addition, my students participate in regular Class Meetings and routinely collaborate on how to problem solve. As a teacher, I actively take into account the needs of my students, both victim and offender, when misbehavior occurs, so formalizing the process into a restorative justice format feels like the next step.
My greatest concern is how parents might react to this type of management system, as much of the punitive nature of discipline is removed. I wonder if parents will think that students "get away with" bad behavior since they wouldn't be receiving the traditional punitive consequences for some actions. However, I am confident that students, parents and staff all want a respectful learning environment that upholds dignity of every student and this type of process does that very well. I am sure there will be challenges along the way, but I am excited about the journey!
I would welcome any suggestions or comments about this process and I will keep this group updated on our progress!
- Great slide show on restorative justice process School-Based Restorative Justice
- Entire website dedicated to Restorative Justice http://www.restorativejustice.org/
- Excellent guide for setting up a Restorative Justice Program in your school Implementing Restorative Justice: A Guide for Schools
- New York Times Article about Restorative Justice Programs implemented in Oakland schools Opening Up, Students Transform a Vicious Circle
ok.... taken me a while to be able to comment but...... I love the idea of restorative justice Angela. Our leadership use the idea with children that are sent to the office for anything. It is a much fairer way of helping children overcome problems. The only problem we have is that we have some children who are not able top put themselves into other's shoes.... see things from their perspective. Have you heard of the programme
ReplyDeleteSocial Thinking. I recently attended a two day conference about it and found it very interesting. Here is a link to the website www.socialthinking.com The programme helps teach the social skills lacking in many high functioning autistic and many typical children who have trouble using perspective in everyday life.