An excerpt from OZY -
WHY DETENTION SUCKS ... AND MANUAL LABOR IS BETTER
By James Watkins
When OZY’s Sean Culligan, then 16, hurled a water balloon that hit a car passing outside his high school, the effect was not quite what he’d hoped. Caught in the act by a teacher, who viewed the “prank” as a serious misdemeanor, young Culligan was given a one-way ticket to detention for the rest of the week. But his punishment wasn’t to sit in silence or write “I must not throw things at cars” 100 times. Instead, detention involved janitorial work — picking up litter, carrying supplies, even cleaning the bathrooms. That was par for the course at a Catholic school back then.
Too severe? We might not see eye to eye with young Culligan’s tormentors, but something might be said for making detention a bit more … physical. When detention in the majority of schools across the world is spent in silence, reading or writing lines of penance, couldn’t it be made more productive? How about using the time to teach misbehaving children the value of hard work and community service, and respect for the environment and teamwork, rather than trying to bore them into obedience? Whether working alongside the janitor to tidy classrooms or tending to a community garden, schools should ditch detention and replace it with manual labor.
http://www.ozy.com/immodest-proposal/why-detention-sucks-and-manual-labor-is-better/74515
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