Should We Have a Moratorium on Restorative Practices?

I'm wondering if we should call for a moratorium on restorative practices or if there's some other way that we can deal with this problem of restorative practices being implemented in a way other than what the trainers, what the authors, what the experts on the subject intended, which is what I've been criticizing, this practice of restorative practices without any consequences.

And so many people have said, well, I teach restorative practices and I don't teach no consequences.

I don't know where this is coming from.

And yet clearly, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong in the comments here, but clearly lots of schools are implementing restorative practices with no consequences, with candy instead of consequences, with lots of things that apparently nobody intended, but we're just getting it very wrong despite trainers and experts and authors' best efforts to get it right.

And I think part of the problem is fundamental.

I don't think restorative practices can be used effectively as a replacement for progressive discipline.

I think we will always need consequences.

We will always need progressive discipline.

And many of the restorative practices advocates have agreed with that and have said that.

But somehow...

Many, many schools are getting the idea that there is a way that we can implement restorative practices that allows us to completely avoid consequences.

And consequences are icky.

We don't like them.

That makes us feel bad to give consequences to kids, especially if they're already not doing well.

But the indications are there that we cannot operate schools safely if they have any level of discipline problems without consequences, right?

The school just becomes unsafe if there's no consequence for violence, if there's no consequence for fighting, for serious disruption.

Like, you just have to have consequences that include removing kids from class, removing kids from school for a bit so that they can calm down, so that they can, you know, give the rest of the class a break.

I don't know that there is any alternative.

And this idea that restorative practices are just kind of this magic wand that can fix every problem, you know, I think comes from two places.

I think, one, it comes from overpromising on the front end.

And I think there are people who advocate for restorative practices who are overpromising what it can do.

And second, I think it comes from people who are just applying it wrong and saying, yes, this can do everything.

We were promised it could do one thing.

Now we're going to promise that it is, again, the magic wand that can solve every problem.

So I don't know.

What is the best way to keep this from happening?

Because on the one hand, I'm very sympathetic to the plight of these trainers and authors and experts because they are not teaching things that are being done.

This is, on one level, not their fault because what they are teaching is not harmful.

But I feel like there's also, on the other hand, some responsibility to deal with misinterpretations, poor implementations.

And yet I don't really know how to deal with that because if you don't train someone and they just take your ideas without your permission and do them wrong...

I don't feel right holding somebody responsible for that because they didn't train the schools that are doing it wrong.

But I think we've got to get this under control as a profession.

We've got to do something about this because too many people are getting hurt.

And I want to be really clear about my motivations here.

The violence is the problem and the violence is being caused by the lack of consequences in the name of restorative practices.

I've been talking about this all year.

You can go back and see my previous videos on this.

I don't think we can do restorative practices without consequences and not have continued violence in many schools.

So let me know what you think about this.

Do we need like a total moratorium on any talk about restorative practices or is there another way?

Let me know what you think.