Thoughts on the Policies in Relation to Restorative Justice in Schools

This is something that I really can’t grasp if I am being honest. The first thing that would be problematic is the concept of understanding the community, even though that could be just terminology to bridge understanding. In today’s learning institution we are not really delving into the character-building building blocks that help students become productive and respective members of the community. There are inherent inequalities that are systematically real, and those will not just dissolve by some policies. Granted it may well have great intentions, but slavery was eradicated by law in 1850, that didn’t mean he attitudes that created the issue disappeared, and still persist in our country.

The first challenge to any proposal is to retrain people and their perceptions of behavior, responses, and stimuli. Does that guarantee they will think along different lines? NO, it doesn’t but it at least tackles the cognitive part of behavior in relation to assumed behavior. If we see people through different lenses perhaps, we will have different responses. For example, I live in a suburbs and teenagers can walk down the street behaving in a fashion and no one will blink an eye. If another ethnic group walked down their street and exhibited foreign behavior to someone it can easily be seen in a different light, though their thoughts and intentions are exactly the same. It is necessary to assess and converse about our concepts and ideologies of human behavior, especially from those who are unalike us. Without that understanding, we live in the realm of preconceived reality and assumptions.

Another aspect is the “communal or group think mode.” I disagree with this completely. Individualism is as natural as day and night, and if we begin to generate a peer pressure to fit the mold of a desired view of accepted behavior, that will have severe unintended and adverse consequences. It can lead to community totalitarianism or authoritarianism. We need to allow for the genius of the persona to collectively brighten our communities instead of creating a system of production line characters.

In connection with restorative justice, in summation, if we teach sound decision making, and why certain behavior are unhealthy to the individual, as well as the environment they habitat, it is a safer model that produces true justice that can be affirmed by all. We all know what is reasonable and can detect injustices. The community doesn’t need to be restored it needs to be built upon better building blocks. Community doesn’t have an affiliation, but rather the collection of individualism, and is created by unwritten morals, values, judgements, and behaviors, while leaving the freedom to be yourself.