STUDENT DISCIPLINE

For over a decade school discipline has been named by teachers, parents and the general public as the number one problem of the public schools. Some parents fear that their children will learn more about alcohol, drugs and sex at school than what school is supposed to teach them. Others are distressed that the presence of difficult, unruly children in classrooms with their own not only prevents learning, but offers a daily lesson in the powerlessness of adult values and authority. Still others avoid these problems by sending their children to private school.

An undisciplined atmosphere also takes its toll on teachers by making their jobs more difficult, if not impossible. If preoccupied with maintaining order they may be unable to concentrate on real teaching. Demoralized teachers under stress are less able to produce achieving students.

When public classrooms and schools are filled with problem students, regular students will fail to learn. Discipline breakdown can destroy the historic role of the school as the conveyor of common values and as an institution which insists on behaving by them.

Discipline problems both cause, and are caused by, a growing gap between school and home. They are exacerbated by faulty public school policies framed by students' rights advocates who have been so preoccupied with protecting the difficult child that they have failed to consider the rights of the average child to learn in a disciplined, structured place. Principals, supervisors and teachers have been so intimidated by the students' rights movement that they are hesitating to use the real powers they do have.

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers believes that discipline in the schools is an essential part of any agenda to improve public education; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT advocates the development and sponsorship of special schools, special classes and special programs for difficult students who cannot or will not function normally; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT encourage the development and dissemination of model school discipline plans, which include strong procedures for suspension and expulsion of unruly students and the consistent enforcement of such plans; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT do more to inform teachers about research and workable plans dealing with classroom management; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support sound programs to treat student alcohol and drug problems and insist that students in need of such programs enroll in them; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT promote special screening and treatment programs for very young children who show symptoms that may predict later behavior problems and every effort should be made to identify and solve such problems before it is too late; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT devise model programs and strategies for closing the gap between home and school through more teacher-parent contact and through more parent involvement in school programs and activities; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support the involvement of teachers in the development of programs aimed at discipline problems.