At Noble Street College Prep school in Chicago, kids are fine. Or rather, they’re fined for breaking even small rules, like forgetting to wear a belt.
Reports the Associated Press:
Noble Network of Charter Schools charges students at its 10 Chicago high schools $5 for detentions stemming from infractions that include chewing gum and having untied shoelaces.
As a result, they collected nearly $190,000 in discipline fees during the last school year.
Says AP:
Superintendent Michael Milkie said the policy teaches the kids — overwhelmingly poor, minority and often hoping to be the first in their families to attend college — to follow rules and produces in a structured learning environment.
But one mother, whose son has an attention disorder, told the AP that little things added up for her 16-year-old son, who had to pay fees for an unbuttoned shirt, untied shoes and not tracking the teacher with his eyes.
“It’s not normal to treat a young adult as a 2-year-old…kids internalize that,” she told the AP.
Amen. What if we were treated like that? Like many mothers, if I had to pay a fine for every little infraction, I’d rack up quite a bill. Here’s how:
- Leaving a mug of tea in the microwave for six hours: $5
- Losing (yet another) earring somewhere between my car and the store: $5
- Running out of printer ink before the Social Studies report is printed but after Staples is closed: $5
- Being visible — in slippers — outside when the middle school bus drives by: $5
- Not having enough mints for every kid in the car: $5
- Hiding the fact that one kid’s sandwich is made from sandwich ends by smothering the bread in peanut butter: $5
- Running late for soccer practice pick-up: $5
- Running out of small bills when the Tooth Fairy is scheduled to arrive: $5
And that’s just Tuesday.
How about you? What infractions would you have to pay for?
My family members have to pay $1 whenever they need me to find something. The funny thing is that once I instituted that policy, they started finding things on their own.
I’m all for the Noble Street disciplinary policies, by the way. I’m okay with kids having to keep their shirts tucked in and their shoes tied in school, and you know what? At 16, they are capable of doing it.
(We had a Noble Street school on our list of potential high schools. They have a great track record, better than almost every CPS high school except for the test-in schools. However, they are charter schools, and that drives some people here crazy.)