Turning Points Chapter 8: A Safe and Healthy School Environment

Turning Points Chapter 8: A Safe and Healthy School Environment
This chapter talks about one of the most important issues in schools today, how to form a healthy environment for learning. The chapter outlines how many teachers believe that student discipline is the biggest problem that they face. One way to help prevent bad behavior is to make sure that all students understand the rules and know why they are important; another big step is to communicate the consequences of bad behavior along with making sure that teachers and administrators know who is in charge of dealing with discipline issues. Another big part of the chapter is dedicated to race and ethnicity. The book points out how preschool children understand race, and middle school students are at the age when they begin to develop thoughts about people – it is important to make sure that these thoughts are not racist or bigoted ones. The other big health problem that students run into is that this is the age when they begin to experiment with drugs, sex, smoking, alcohol, along with bringing guns to school, and eating poorly. It is important that your school deals with these issues and helps students avoid bad behavior that can harm their school work along with harm their lives.
I had to agree with most of the things in this chapter. I know that if you do not feel comfortable in school then you will not want to go or participate; in turn, failure to go will not only harm your grades but will also harm the social skills needed to survive in life, which you develop during this time period. I think that schools need to develop good health classes, ones that students do not think are jokes, so that we can help prevent under aged sex and drug use. I remember when I went to middle school, my school had a real bad problem with discipline and it not only hurt learning but it made many people not want to go to school. I will not allow that to happen in my classroom and I hope to be an advocate in my school to make sure that students do feel comfortable in school and will not avoid going because of something that is going on.