Its an easy approach, you just have to do it.

From The Abolition of School Discipline by Daniel Buck

This article has been bothering me for several days.  I agree with the direction of most of the article.  That isn't the issue.  

My frustration is that the entire argument is built on anecdote and abstraction.  I believe that there is a discipline problem in our schools, that it is quite likely very concentrated in certain jurisdictions, that it has a bad overall impact on the education of the non-trouble making students, and that there are viable solutions that could be implemented.

But we can't argue in the abstract.

Is there a problem with school discipline and its impact on all children.  I certainly believe so both from published accounts and data.  The aggregate picture is patchy but we can tell the story in data.  But that is not done in this article.

Rather mucking around in the details that are missing, my best take-away is a clarification in my own mind as to what is missing.  Which is what is almost always missing in most public policy discussions.

Problem Definition and Measurement - Is truancy, violence and disruption on the rise among the nations schools?  If so how, by how much?  Are there patterns as to where such violence is occurring?  My impression is that this is largely a blue city jurisdiction issue but it would be useful to know whether that is true or not.

Problem Causes - If truancy, violence and disruption is rising in schools, why?  What is causing that?  Poor law enforcement?  Gangs?  Dysfunctional families?  Too many unpunished trouble makers?  The candidate causes are legion and almost all complex social issues are multi-causal.  What are the causes here?

Alternative Solutions - What, based on experience, analysis and case studies, are viable alternative solutions to the defined problem and its' causes?  Just as there are usually multiple causes, there are almost always multiple solutions, some overlapping, some exclusive of one another.  

Trade-off Decision-making - Given the range of solution alternatives and there estimated probabilities of success, what are the trade-offs inherent to the solution are is there community consensus to accept those trade-offs.  

Conceptually easy four things to do.  Almost certainly a lot of work to actually execute the four easy things, but that is how progress is made.  Complaining about things without any empirical evidence as to their existence and then throwing out speculated causes and speculated solutions and no grappling with either the inherent trade-offs or concern about the communities' willingness to support those trade-offs isn't just authoritarian.  It is mental masturbation.