Suspensions are not a punishment for most of the kids who get suspended (troublemakers). Troublemakers, mostly boys, are kids who will not silently sit still.

Suspensions are not a punishment for most of the kids who get suspended (troublemakers). Troublemakers, mostly boys, are kids who will not silently sit still. It's easy to blame the parents of these children for their lack of discipline, but casting blame doesn't solve problems. The problem with troublemakers is that they are disruptive to the rest of the class. Further, they encourage other students, who ordinarily have no problem silently sitting still, to act like troublemakers as well. Removing troublemakers from the class makes helps teachers teach, helps non-troublemakers learn, and relieves troublemakers from the boredom of silently sitting still. Win-win-win, right? Unfortunately, troublemakers often feel out-of-school suspensions as a reward, not a punishment. In-school-suspension (ISS) is somewhat better, because the troublemaker can't just play video games while they are supposedly being disciplined. But ISS still reinforces the notion that there is an alternative to education. As someone who had trouble silently sitting still as an adolescent -- and I still struggle with lectures that discourage audience interruptions -- I hope to see education evolve into more polymorphic system where creativity and spontaneity are valued along with discipline and time management.