Should Schools Abolish Detentions?

Detentions are entirely unnecessary. From my experience detentions are placed at inconvenient times, on a Saturday morning or late evening, which mainly consists as the punishment. This obviously creates incentive for people to comply by school rules like not missing classes, or sports etc. Detentions basically try to manipulate a student in to conforming to the expectations of a school ultimately trying to defeat free will. Such a tool doesn't change the pupil's perception of why what they are doing is wrong. For example if a student misses a specified sports session to improve on the state of their academic work or for any other personal reason (like for religious beliefs) but still gets some personal exercise in, do they really deserve a punishment?

Reply 1

Personinsertname

The belief that taking someones time away from them is equivalent to talking class or ignoring a single instruction is unjustice.
That hour lost is unimaginable, yet teachers think they can just steal part of our lives like that.
The real punishment should be your very own **** grades when you come out of school.

Reply 2

Coolk14

i have never been in one so I DONT KNOW

Reply 3

NotNotBatman

Yes, they're useless, I got them everyday for being late, but I was still late all the time, it also takes away a chunk of revision time.

Reply 4

Paranoid_Glitch

Original post by JohnGreek

You're questioning whether detentions are appropriate punishments for some offences. That isn't the same as saying that they should be abolished altogether.

Sorry, i meant it as a rhetorical question. My belief is that detentions should be abolished, just wanted to get separate opinions on it.

Reply 5

Tiger Rag

So, what's the alternative?

Reply 6

Paranoid_Glitch

Original post by Tiger Rag

So, what's the alternative?

I can't give an absolute alternative that would be better, but i know that constructive criticism is more effective than putting students in detention unnecessarily. Detentions are a pretty myopic construct by schools, it isn't as simple as putting someone on detention for being late to class, there is a lot to consider.

If that person does not want to show up to class then getting bad grades may be there downfall. On the other hand if that pupil works better independently and gets good/stellar grades, was depriving that student of that moment really worth it? It all comes down to free will, to some extent we all have it and so were not going to change our perception unless convinced otherwise, from what i have seen, detention (and constructive criticism at times) fails to do that. Simply said, the harm achieved by detentions substantially outweighs any good it could do. People will only ever succeed if they decide to succeed.