Description

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How can teachers and administrators better deal with discipline, punishment, bullying, truancy, and other issues? Can community-building begin in a classroom?

The authors of this book believe that by applying restorative justice at school, we can build a healthier and more just society. With practical applications and models.

Can an overworked teacher possibly turn an unruly incident with students into an "opportunity for learning, growth, and community-building"? If restorative justice has been able to salvage lives within the world of criminal behavior, why shouldn't its principles be applied in school classrooms and cafeterias? And if our children learn restorative practices early and daily, won't we be building a healthier, more just society? Topics include:

• Why restorative justice
• The role of discipline and punishment
• Characteristics of peaceable schools
• Flexible policies
• Whole school training approaches
• Class meetings
• Truancy mediation
• Bullying
• And more!

Two educators answer yes, yes, and yes in this new addition to The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding series. Amstutz and Mullet offer applications and models. "Discipline that restores is a process to make things as right as possible." This Little Book shows how to get there.

About the Author

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Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz is Director of Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) Office on Crime and Justice. In this capacity, she provides consulting and training for agencies and communities seeking to implement programs of restorative justice which specifically include a Victim Offender Mediation/Conferencing component. She has provided technical assistance and consulting for numerous programs throughout the United States. She has worked in the victim offender field since 1984 when she began working in Elkhart, Indiana, the site of the first Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) in the United States. She lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Judy Mullet is a professor in the psychology department at Eastern Mennonite University. She received her Ph.D. from Kent State University, where her dissertation work focused on context-motivated, conflict strategy choices of middle school students with learning disabilities. A member of the EMU faculty since 1986, Dr. Mullet specializes in restorative discipline in schools, conducting workshops across the USA. She lives near Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania.