Judicious Discipline

Judicious Discipline is a discipline model based on a synthesis of professional ethics, good educational practice, and students' constitutional rights. This paper provides an overview of Judicious Discipline in the schools. Many educators who have familiarized themselves with the concepts of Judicious Discipline begin with a discussion of students rights. Educators then develop rules together based on student responsibilities flowing from those rights and discuss with students the process of how things will be handled when students act irresponsibly. In these democratic classrooms, responsibility flows from a principled level of thinking where students learn to balance their individual freedoms with the interests of the school community. Subsequently, students learn their constitutional rights, especially those granted by the 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendments. Students also learn that offsetting these rights are the states' interest of property loss and damage, legitimate educational purpose, health and safety, and serious disruptions of the educational process. Teachers who practice Judicious Discipline develop class rules based on these compelling state interests, which are reinforced in part by judicious consequences that follow rules violations. Judicious Discipline presents student misbehavior as learning opportunities, providing them a code of ethics, but recognizing that some students who are unstable will probably not benefit from this approach. (RJM)