Discipline Over Punishment - by Trevor W Gardner (Paperback)

About the Book

Discipline Over Punishment is an exploration of the transformative potential of restorative discipline practices in schools, ranging from the micro-level of one-on-one interactions with students to the macro-level of re-routing the school-to-prison pipeline and improving life ...

Book Synopsis

Discipline Over Punishment is an exploration of the transformative potential of restorative discipline practices in schools, ranging from the micro-level of one-on-one interactions with students to the macro-level of re-routing the school-to-prison pipeline and improving life outcomes for young people. Gardner, who continues to teach high school in Oakland, CA, has spent nearly 20 years innovating, struggling, and succeeding to implement various restorative justice practices in classrooms and schools around the Bay Area. Using classrooms and schools where he has taught and students, families and educators with whom he has worked, Gardner examines how restorative justice, as a set of beliefs and practices can be a force for justice and equity in our classrooms, schools, and beyond.

Review Quotes

A humanizing call to transform how educators conceive, implement, and evaluate disciplinary practices serving students of color in this era of zero tolerance policies. Gardner offers powerful, grounded insights from his application of restorative justice in schools to illustrate how re-envisioning school discipline can help edify and empower the people who might otherwise be alienated by traditional approaches to maintaining order. A must-read by all stakeholders concerned with reconciling relationships and social conflicts in schools.

Discipline Over Punishment offers a timely antidote to the ubiquitous oppressive practices that have for far too long fueled the school to prison pipeline and limited the life possibility particularly for youth of color in US schools. Gardner invites the reader to consider portraits of teachers and students engaged in restorative practices that highlight the possibility of transformative discipline that supports and sustains teaching toward liberation and social change. Gardner offers real examples of inclusive discipline that leads to individual and community development for youth and adults alike and maintains the dignity of all stakeholders. This book is an important reminder for critical educators that the way we show up with youth, families, communities, and other adults in our buildings is central to catalyzing a healing process so desperately needed in US schooling.

I have seen firsthand Trevor's commitment to creating classroom and school cultures that support the nation's most vulnerable youth. It is incredibly rare to bring to print a voice from the field so committed and invested in seeing our educational system become responsive to the youth, families, and communities it has neglected for generations. We have so much to learn from those grinding it out every day with our children and families, and this book is an important step toward that learning for our field.

Mandatory reading for any superintendent, school board member, principal, politician, and teacher who wants proper and fair cooperative discipline to work. At last, a fresh, young, and deeply gifted teacher speaks from the heart and from experience of using practical real-world methods and solutions.

Our educational system can only claim success, to the degree that we can cultivate the talent of underdeveloped and alienated youth. We need practical examples of the kind of processes, procedures, and practices that enable teachers and administrators to provide the kind of support every child deserves in order to thrive. In his book, Discipline Over Punishment, Gardner shares from his extensive experience as a teacher who employs restorative justice practices with his students. Through moving narratives, what becomes clear is that growth happens for both students and teachers/administrators when as they learn how to explore what has happened in their respective lives rather than simply exploring wrong doing. When we listen deeply and find common humanity, barriers can be replaced with healthier relationships, and we build community.

Trevor Gardner offers us here not just a book, but a gift, his generous sharing of a life in the classroom that has been truly transformative. In a voice that is wise yet accessible, he leads us through the process of building community, respect, and a commitment to social justice. Discipline Over Punishment is not simply feel-good platitudes; it reframes the whole conversation about 'classroom management' and grapples with the most challenging dilemmas of teaching. When so much of education has been reduced to mandates and negativity, Gardner grasps the hope and brilliance of young people, the deeply ethical core that can be inspired and mobilized by humanizing schools and classrooms.

About the Author

Trevor W. Gardner has taught high school English and history for the past 17 years in San Francisco and Oakland, where he has practiced and studied the use of restorative justice in urban schools. He currently teaches history and serves as the Dean of Instruction and Academic Coach at ARISE High School in East Oakland.