Apologies to comedian Jeff Foxworthy for this riff on his Redneck series, but his jokes are a great way to highlight something I often hear from people I’ve trained over the years.
When I follow up, they tell me they’re not using restorative justice. “We don’t always seat kids in a circle,” they’ll say. Or, “I don’t use a talking piece.” Another common refrain: “No, we don’t write out the agreements. I just don’t have time.” Which may all be true.
However . . . you might be an RJ user if:
- You hold students accountable by cleaning up their messes rather than taking the punishment.
- You look for opportunities for students to heal the harm instead of automatically excluding them for misconduct.
- Even when exclusion is necessary, you offer opportunities to heal the harm and restore relationships when the students return to school after suspension.
- You give all affected parties a voice, letting them say what happened, how they were affected, and what ideas they have for how to make things right.
- You trust those directly affected to have the answers for how to heal the harm, rather than imposing your judgement on the ones who caused the harm.
- You listen. You listen to the student who has been harmed, to the student who caused the harm (most of the time kids are playing both roles) and affected members of the community.
- Your discipline involves high control with high support—making sure students behave so they can achieve their best learning, while keeping them in their learning communities as much as possible.
So if any of these descriptions apply to you, Surprise! You might just be an RJ User, working through the restorative paradigm whether you realize it or not.
If you want to get more power out of your restorative practice, talk to me about ways you can put your training to use even more!