By Allison Ringold
If one were to google “Blue Magic” one would come up with the following: hair cream, metal polish, and an R&B band, among a few other things. But what one wouldn’t come up with is Pioneer’s new disciplinary program. This program is a recent change in the way that Pioneer deals with discipline. It was created by Community Assistant Mr. Copeland with the goal of restoring order and not punishing or yelling at students at the same time. Essentially, it works like this:
The first part is rewarding good behavior. For example, Copeland said that he always says thank you to students when they come to their class on time, because that’s what they should be doing. The second part is a different approach to bad behavior. When a student acts out, he talks to that student in private and never yells or talks to students in front of a class. According to Copeland, this opens communication between the staff member and the student. And when he talks to students, he doesn’t punish them; he just talks to them about how they can change their behavior moving forward after giving them time to cool down. And he deals with each situation differently. “It depends on the student; it depends on the situation,” he said.
So why should schools be doing this? The answer is something called the “School-To-Jail Pipeline”, or, more accurately, avoiding it.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the “School-To-Jail Pipeline is, “a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.” When a student acts out at school and gets suspended that student has a lower probability for graduating, and this probability decreases the more the suspensions increase. If the student does not graduate, the student is less likely to get a job or make enough money to support him or herself and more likely to turn to crime to cover basic needs. They will likely be caught and jailed. According to Copeland, the root of this very problem is how schools deal with discipline: traditional punishments like detention, suspensions, and expulsions, just don’t work, he says. High school can be a weird time: students are treated like children but are expected to behave like adults, and dealing with that can be tricky. So somehow we need to find a middle ground, and “Blue Magic” attempts to be this middle ground. And this is what motivates Copeland to not give up on a student easily. According to him, if a student keeps acting out, he tries not to hold a grudge and just keeps on trying to help that student. He’s ready to talk whenever. “You stay persistent, persistent, persistent,” said Copeland. “We’re not giving this up. We’re gonna outlast. It’s just being persistent.”
Additionally, he tries some new tactics. He might try to get the student to see the situation from another perspective and empathize with others in the situation. If a student keeps acting out, he or she might talk to the principal or Copeland might sit in class with the student. And most importantly, he doesn’t yell at the student.
While information about the program seems to be scarce, some students are unsure about how effective it will be. Pioneer junior Ayla Hoermann said that this approach may not always work. “I feel like a lot of people don’t act out because they’re struggling, but because they feel like it or think they’re being funny,” she said. “Of course sometimes it’s the case, but if someone’s being disruptive, it’s not always going to be fixed by saying ‘Hey why’re you doing that?’ ”
Another Pioneer junior, Annika Hockmann, agrees. “People are going to keep acting up,” she said. “I would if my only punishment was someone talking to me.”
However, some feel that Copeland’s program will help students in a way that previous programs haven’t. “I really believe in what (Mr. Copeland) is doing,” says AP Psych teacher Jodi Bullinger “ He’s trying to shift a student's management of themselves from these external things and teach themselves to internally manage their own behavior… which is a skill set that’s going to last them a long period of time.”
If one were to google “Blue Magic” one would come up with the following: hair cream, metal polish, and an R&B band, among a few other things. But what one wouldn’t come up with is Pioneer’s new disciplinary program. This program is a recent change in the way that Pioneer deals with discipline. It was created by Community Assistant Mr. Copeland with the goal of restoring order and not punishing or yelling at students at the same time. Essentially, it works like this:
The first part is rewarding good behavior. For example, Copeland said that he always says thank you to students when they come to their class on time, because that’s what they should be doing. The second part is a different approach to bad behavior. When a student acts out, he talks to that student in private and never yells or talks to students in front of a class. According to Copeland, this opens communication between the staff member and the student. And when he talks to students, he doesn’t punish them; he just talks to them about how they can change their behavior moving forward after giving them time to cool down. And he deals with each situation differently. “It depends on the student; it depends on the situation,” he said.
So why should schools be doing this? The answer is something called the “School-To-Jail Pipeline”, or, more accurately, avoiding it.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the “School-To-Jail Pipeline is, “a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.” When a student acts out at school and gets suspended that student has a lower probability for graduating, and this probability decreases the more the suspensions increase. If the student does not graduate, the student is less likely to get a job or make enough money to support him or herself and more likely to turn to crime to cover basic needs. They will likely be caught and jailed. According to Copeland, the root of this very problem is how schools deal with discipline: traditional punishments like detention, suspensions, and expulsions, just don’t work, he says. High school can be a weird time: students are treated like children but are expected to behave like adults, and dealing with that can be tricky. So somehow we need to find a middle ground, and “Blue Magic” attempts to be this middle ground. And this is what motivates Copeland to not give up on a student easily. According to him, if a student keeps acting out, he tries not to hold a grudge and just keeps on trying to help that student. He’s ready to talk whenever. “You stay persistent, persistent, persistent,” said Copeland. “We’re not giving this up. We’re gonna outlast. It’s just being persistent.”
Additionally, he tries some new tactics. He might try to get the student to see the situation from another perspective and empathize with others in the situation. If a student keeps acting out, he or she might talk to the principal or Copeland might sit in class with the student. And most importantly, he doesn’t yell at the student.
While information about the program seems to be scarce, some students are unsure about how effective it will be. Pioneer junior Ayla Hoermann said that this approach may not always work. “I feel like a lot of people don’t act out because they’re struggling, but because they feel like it or think they’re being funny,” she said. “Of course sometimes it’s the case, but if someone’s being disruptive, it’s not always going to be fixed by saying ‘Hey why’re you doing that?’ ”
Another Pioneer junior, Annika Hockmann, agrees. “People are going to keep acting up,” she said. “I would if my only punishment was someone talking to me.”
However, some feel that Copeland’s program will help students in a way that previous programs haven’t. “I really believe in what (Mr. Copeland) is doing,” says AP Psych teacher Jodi Bullinger “ He’s trying to shift a student's management of themselves from these external things and teach themselves to internally manage their own behavior… which is a skill set that’s going to last them a long period of time.”