The Problem With Exclusionary Discipline

Exclusionary Discipline

Students who experience academic failure are more likely to be pushed out of schools through exclusionary discipline practices. Exclusionary discipline practices are disciplinary measures that remove students from the learning process. These practices can be anything from timeouts, to suspensions, and expulsions. “Suspension and expulsion, the most common responses in discipline policies, are not effective in meeting the needs of any student and, ironically, exacerbate the very problems they are attempting to reduce” (Christle, 2007, p. 539). Any disciplinary act that separates a child from the educational experience could fit into the context of an exclusionary discipline practice, but zero tolerance policies have been most complicit in these practices. Zero tolerance policies demand punishment for violated school practices and policies, and often enact the most severe punitive response to any infraction of the rules. One of the dangers associated with zero tolerance policies is that students are singled out and severely punished for infractions that are commonly associated with adolescent immaturity. Acts like day dreaming, doodling, and talking out of turn are viewed as threats to the teacher’s authority, and certain students are repeatedly targeted with harsher consequences (Christle, 2007). These targeted students tend to be black and Latino males who are notoriously victimized by criminalization and stereotyping in America. As a result, zero tolerance policies that were put in place to curb inappropriate behavior may “exacerbate racial discrepancies” (Monroe, 2005, p47). Educators' unwillingness to draw distinctions between severe and minor offenses and the breadth with which zero tolerance approaches are applied appear to be primary sources of the problem (Skiba and Peterson 1999). The lack of practices that mediate discipline problems in the classroom can result in the victimization of the student. The emphasis on zero tolerance may also contribute to an “inattention to the value of working cooperatively with parents and communities to construct schools where disruption is minimized overall” (Monroe, 2005, p. 47). Once students are removed from the classroom, the process for the school to prison pipeline commences (Christle, 2007).


Modern day attempts at school reform linked to standardized tests can also have the affect of pushing children into the school to prison pipeline. When students are identified as not being able to meet academic standards, or as contributing to school failure, it is easier to eliminate them from the equation than to enact measures to assist them in meeting the standards. “These children are often identified by their apparent inability to acknowledge and follow the hidden curriculum of schools and their failure to acquire the skills necessary to successfully negotiate the school environment” (Fenning and Rose, 2007, p. 237). Schools can mask their failures by removing children that do not make the grade. This is exacerbated in schools located in areas of concentrated poverty that do not have the resources to undertake the kind of in school reforms that are necessary to counteract the historical inequalities related to American schools. High stakes testing associated with No Child Left Behind has done more to reinvent school inequality, than to undermine and correct it.

See NY Times Op-Ed article for more info: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/opinion/11wed2.html?th&emc=th

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Church, Not the Public School... QUOTE

In reading about the Cincinnati Bible War today, which concerned the debate against teaching Protestant Christian religious lessons in public schools in the 1870's, I found this interesting quote from a staunch Calvinist Presbyterian elder who was also an attorney for the Cincinnati school board. He said this in defense of his position that "the church, not the public school was the proper agency" for religious education:

"Cannot the church send out it's ministers? Or are they too busy, day after day, in their studies, preparing to dole out dogmatic theology Sunday after Sunday, to the tired ears of their wearied congregations? Cannot they send out their Sunday School teachers? Cannot they send out their missionaries?...Must we say that the church has grown idle and lazy, and can only hobble on its crutches, and therefore that our school directors must set themselves up as teachers of religious truth? No! Let the church cease to depend upon any adventitious or external aids. Let her rely solely upon the strength of the Spirit of the Lord that is in it...Here is our work to evangelize, to save the lost and perishing crowd"

--Stanley Matthews--

I could site any number of local missions opportunities in this declaration that the modern church misses time and time again that would get people out of the pews... Compelling argument in my opinion.

King's Intertextuality

Today I found myself reflecting on some comments made by Bishop Jakes at a training I attended a few weeks ago. His comments were about the gulf that seems to exist between intellectualism and spirituality in the minds of so many church goers. This supposed gulf impacts me in a personal way as I attempt to write my dissertation which deals with emancipatory education and the Black Church. The other day, I was explaining to my peers at the Center for Race and Ethnicity that my work, in addition to embodying my own personal sense of agency, attempts to bridge intellectual and spiritual territories that are often disparate. As I contend in my work, this should never be.

In the course of my reflections, I recalled the first time I read King's Birmingham Jail Letter during my 1st year of seminary in my New Testament class. I was amazed at King's ability to weave the African American story into the narratives of the Bible so seamlessly. Their were times where you were so caught up in his explication of the plight of the Civil Rights movement that you didn't realize that he was discussing the ministry of the Apostle Paul. It was upon reading this letter that I realized for the first time that Dr. Martin Luther King was not just "a young black minister from Georgia" as President Obama so frequently likes to refer to him. King was in fact one of the best theologians, intellectuals, and preachers in the history of the United States.

In considering this fact, I enjoy the way one of my former professors, Dr. Hak Joon Lee says it in his book, "We Will Get to the Promised Land: MLK's Communal-Political Spirituality. Lee notes:

"King was a philosopher and systematic theologian by training. It was King's belief that religion should be socially active as well as intellectually respectable. To be intellectually respectable, religious ideals and principals need to be communicated through reasonable and sensible language, in terms that the public can understand. In formulating a plausible form of public theology for social change, King translated his particular religious language and symbols into public terms, identifying and interpreting in spiritual terms the challenges and problems of a society. A master of intertextuality, King freely interwove various spiritual, moral, and intellectual sources for the persuasion of the public. He creatively mixed spirituals, African American proverbs, and folklore with phrases from the Bible (e.g., the Exodus, wilderness, crucifixion, redemption, and eschaton), Western philosophies, theologies, and political documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in making a public case for the freedom of African Americans."

Dr. King was indeed a minster from Georgia, but it was his God given intellectual prowess that separated him from the masses as an effective leader, that enhanced his ability to so profoundly articulate the gospel, and to encourage peoples' participation in the struggle, which for him was as much spiritual as it was political.

The next time you hear someone refer to King as simply a "young black minister from Georgia"... whisper in their ear that he was "much more than that." AND the next time someone tries to tell you that intelligence and spirituality can't coexist, remind them about a "young black minister from Georgia" who was really, really smart.

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Power of Christ Crucified - A Church Revived

Exceprts from a sermon preached on October 8, 2009 at Cedar Park Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA by Rev. Frederick A Hanna.

You know as we open this 1st night of revival, I must confess that I have been thinking about this whole revival thing… I’ve been thinking about the meaning of the word “revival”, literally "to put life back into," and I’ve come to the conclusion that for one to say that one is having a revival is really a peculiar thing for a church to do…

Why? You ask… Well… looking back at the history of the Protestant church movement in America, you will certainly see the phenomena of revival… and history will tell you that a revival…
Was often held in a tent or during a camp meeting…
often involved a series of meetings over the course of days or nights and it
often involved preaching that was inspired… and was…
often held for the purpose of inspiring current church members to go out and seek new converts to the faith…

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a good idea to me because...
We ought to always be doing whatever we can to win people for Christ…
We ought to always be doing whatever we can to see that souls get saved…
We ought to always be doing whatever we can to gain converts and to expand the Kingdom of God…

BUT… There is an interesting dilemma when we talk about REVIVAL… AND what REVIVAL means in a spiritual sense… AND The dilemma is that we will never truly have revival in our churches…
no matter how many wonderful preachers we invite…
no matter how many wonderful songs we sing…
no matter how many people we can pack into the sanctuary…
…unless God by the power of the Holy Spirit decides to show up, to meet us, and to revive us… We need the PRESENCE and the POWER of God if we are ever going to truly have revival…

AND today we need revival like never before…


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You see if we are ever going to be able to take the city for God, then we have to get out of a church mentality… We have got to expand our thinking until it explodes into a Kingdom mentality… we have got to begin to focus on the cross of Christ, and the cross of Christ is not about us as individuals… For the Son of God was not sent for JUST us… but the Son of God was sent that through Him, the world might be saved…

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BUT If we’re not careful… AND FAIL to rely on the Spirit… …we’ll become the church that…
…specializes in how to do church, but has no relevance in the community…
…talks loud but is silent when we need to be heard…
…occupies a corner on the street, but is irrelevant to the people on the street…

If we really want to see revival, we have got to remember the cross of Christ… and the power of the Holy Spirit tear down strongholds… and break the yoke of bondage… and set the captives free… we have got to remember what it means to be the church…


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We as the church have ONE SINGLE concern… and that is that the gospel be proclaimed through the weakness of human beings like us, such that the power of the Spirit begins to change lives… to change individuals… to change relationships… to change families… to change communities… to change cities… to alter the very fabric of civilization through an encounter with Jesus the Christ…

Our faith -- yours and mine, must never rest in the wisdom of a man, but in the power of God -- the power of the Holy Spirit… the power of Cross…

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Chicago Olympics

Sorry Pres, but when you and the wife were making your pitch for summer games in Chicago, I was shaking my head. A little boy is beaten to death in Chicago, and you are wasting money on jet fuel to fly to Copenhagen. Money that could be used to improve schools and housing, and any number of conditions that contribute to the well being of the city you love. Not to mention that you are, in your words, willing to put the full force of the United States behind protecting foreign citizens who come to the city for the games. Try protecting the U.S. citizens who live there. Yay Rio!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-powell/chicago-obama-the-olympic_b_307564.html

Every Thought Captive

2 Corinthians 10

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.



What does it mean to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ? Jesus once prayed "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39) Jesus had taken every though captive. He was able to follow God so closely that his will and the Father's will were indistinguishable. He had disciplined himself to be the perfect example of obedience to God, and he is the model that we all aspire to.

The next time you feel the impulse to jump and act, take a minute to stop and think first... "Is this an act of determined obedience, or is this an act of human nature?" You can do a great deal of practical work that is good work for good reasons, "but true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. (Oswald Chambers)"

Take every thought captive!

Written by Frederick A Hanna

The Power of Images

I've got a joke for you! Listen...




Some people look at these images and find them to be little more than a harmless joke... an effort to get one's point across... a kind of political satire. Others look at these images and see hate... tasteless morbid humor and racism at its best.

Who's right?