At home detention.

I strongly believe in cooperation between parents and teachers for the benefit of the student. Discipline in class is a necessary ingredient for an atmosphere that will be conducive to learning. It is my job as a teacher to enforce class discipline to promote an environment where learning can occur, but I can not do it alone. I believe that a positive student's attitude towards discipline can only be learned at home, and it goes a long way towards proper behavior in school, so the parents should remind their children about the importance of school discipline whenever the need arises.

I only teach juniors and seniors and most of them drive themselves to school. Furthermore, in many households both parents work outside the house, so when I give a student an after hours school detention it is possible for him / her to serve the detention and still get home before the parents come from work, so the parents will never know about the detention unless the student chooses to tell them about it.

Therefore, when disciplinary action is required, instead of in school detentions I may sometimes use what I will call at home detention for lack of a better name. The student will be required to copy a certain amount of material from the class textbook, and the parent will be made aware of the fact that there was a discipline problem by signing a slip to indicate his/her acknowledgement. The student MUST have completed the assignment with the slip signed by the parent to be admitted to class the next day. The length of the assignment will depend on the severity and/or frequency of the problem.

In addition to informing the parents about the discipline problem the at home detention will have other advantages. For example, a student may have scheduled activities after school that would conflict with an after hours school detention, like a doctor's appointment, a part time job, etc. The at home detention will eliminate the conflict, since the student can do the assignment at any convenient time. In addition, the material assigned to be copied will be related to whatever was being covered in class, so writing down this material may help the student learn that which he or she may have been missing in class that day. The slip that the parents will be asked to sign will look like the sample below.


To the parent(s) of __________________________

Your son / daughter needs to complete a handwritten and legible copy of page(s) ______ of the ( Physics / Chemistry / Astronomy / Aerospace Science ) textbook as a disciplinary measure in lieu of an after hours school detention. He /she will not be admitted to class without this slip signed by you and stapled in front of the completed assignment.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me at any time. I thank you for your cooperation and support

________________________ ________________________ ____________
Parent's name in block letters                   Signature                               Date