I think one of the more interesting and less controversial topics in education is discipline. There are really two questions at play here: one, to what extent should teachers be expected to discipline and raise your kid, and two, what kind of disciplinary measures should be used.
Looking at the first question, there is a few perspectives that exist. One, teachers should not be forced or expected to raise our kids. They are here to teach them, and simply are not paid enough to teach children how to behave. That should be the parents job, to ensure that their children are well-behaved so that the teacher can then do their job and teach the kids without too many interruptions or disruptions. Now the reasons that parents are sometimes lacking in this field is a whole ‘nother issue, but that is the first perspective. The opposite to that would then be that of course teachers should be disciplining our kids. They have them for 7-8 hours a day, maybe even more, which is arguable more time then their parents get with them a day. Also, school is a major place where socialization happens, and where kids get to regularly interact with others. Issues are going to come up that simply wouldn’t happen at a home setting, which is where teachers are expected to step in. The middle ground perspective looks something like teachers should call out bad behavior, or at least bring it to the attention of the kids parents, but the teacher should only interfere as much as needed to ensure a proper learning environment and that the parents know.
So then the second question, what disciplinary measures should be used? Well on the extreme end of punishments we have suspension and expulsion, which honestly have never made too much sense to me. We punish kids who misbehave in school by taking them out of school? It only limits their education further, makes them upset at the system, and probably makes them happy because of course they don’t want to be in school. Some kids might even brag about getting suspended. And there is also the issue that kids who getting suspended or expelled are more likely to get involved in the juvenile justice system. Many people are now arguing for negative forms of punishment by extremely limited, and rather use methods of counseling and restorative justice practices.
How our kids are disciplined in school is a major concern that every parent should have a say in. Ultimately, I believe it falls more on the parent than the teacher, and that a lot of parents are parenting wrong these days, but that is an issue of technology, money shortages, and much more. There is no simple fix, but we need to start having these conversations.