In order to deal with misbehavior and reduce suspensions, district officials at Dallas Independent School District are proposing a required class for parents of bad students.
These parenting classes are supposed to reduce the number of placements in discipline alternative education programs (DEAP) and give guidance on discipline, overviews of student performance, and resources on improving student outcomes and mental health — or so says the school district (DISD).
Additionally, there is a proposal to revise the school speech code to include special punishments for so-called hate speech. Presumably, parents of children who use racial or homophobic slurs could be required to come in for classes on how to be less hateful.
To be clear, to solve the problem of misbehavior, these district officials are recommending classes on solving the problem of misbehavior. Based on the description given, these classes won’t offer solutions but only resources and guides that may help parents find a solution themselves.
There are two obvious contradictions with this. The first and most obvious is the circular logic. According to the DISD officials, a parenting class will solve the problem of misbehavior because it’s a parenting class on solving misbehavior, and the people teaching these classes are qualified to teach them because they are qualified teachers. True, this is an obvious instance of the blind leading the blind, but at least someone is leading someone else, which suggests some kind of progress. If no progress is made, then it must be the fault of systemic injustice
