Discipline As Big A Problem As ‘Common Core’ [OPINION]

With all the furor about the adoption of 'Common Core' another major problem seems to have been swept under the rug. What the heck has happened to discipline? In the Lafayette Public School System it was reported that over 40,000 major discipline incidents occurred between August 2013 and May 2014. More than 9,000 of those incidents were in elementary schools, more than 14,000 occurred in middle schools and more than 17,000 incidents were reported in high schools.

What's really scary about these numbers is the headline in the Daily Advertiser proclaimed 'Discipline Cases Tick Downward'. A downward tick to just over 40,000 major discipline incidents doesn't seem like reason to celebrate.

Has our society gotten to the point where no discipline is better than dealing with the problem? I can't go back to records from my education because records only go back so far and I'm sure they were written on papyrus in my day! 40,000 MAJOR incidents is an incredibly scary number when you think most of the problems seem to relate to tardiness and absenteeism. If kids are not being taught how to show up each day, on time, what does that bode for the nation's economy? We've already been fighting the 'minimum wage war' where every job seeker wants to start above or way above the current minimum federal wage. Do you think these same people that can't show up for work and on time will be able to justify someone paying them more than the current minimum? I doubt it seriously.

I don't advocate widespread corporal punishment but standards need to be tightened up and we need to guide children. If their parents weren't guided the problem is multiplied. Parents have to understand that sometimes their sweet little angels turn into discipline problems for little lady school teachers.

The first public school I attended was in the sixth grade NP Moss the second year in the principalship of Lloyd Faulk. My parents and I had heard that NP Moss was an out-of-control school but we were surprised to find that Lloyd Faulk had turned the school around in his first year. Discipline was no longer a problem because of an administrator that did not take any guff from students...or parents. Of course in those days it was understood that if you got in trouble at school it would be worse when you got home.

Interestingly discipline was not a problem the time I was at NP Moss and when I moved to Northside for my four years of high school Lloyd Faulk was the new principal there. Don't know if it would be true today but a stern looking old man with strict rules seemed to work then. Might not be the answer to all the problems but you never know.