Get-tough discipline policies may contribute to student misbehavior in school. Educators may also contribute by humiliating students who fail, unnecessarily complicating discipline policies, enforcing rules arbitrarily and inconsistently, punishing unfairly, or using double standards for teachers and students. The best discipline programs are…

The disciplinary policy at Chapelle Elementary School in Ypsilanti (Michigan), developed with staff participation, classifies some student behavior as "unacceptable" or "inappropriate." Either behavior requires the teacher to fill out a pink slip and send it with the student to the principal's office, but only unacceptable…