Turning Points 2000 Chapter 8

Chapter 8 of Turning Points 2000 discusses how to promote a healthy school environment for students. For schools this includes things like classroom management and discipline, and even helping students lead healthy lifestyles. The chapter began by addressing classroom management and discipline. One of the key factors to having a good discipline plan for your school is being consistent. I could not agree with this point more. I think it is incredibly important that all staff is responsible for consistent discipline. If not, students will start to determine which rules need to be followed and which ones might be okay to break. Another subject that was discussed in this chapter was conflict resolution. I found this section to be pretty interesting because it involved peer mediation. I have never heard of this concept before and I find it pretty intriguing. Part of me thinks that students may not take a responsibility like this very seriously, but the other part of me thinks that this could be a very powerful experiences for all students involved. I think that the students that become the mediators gain so very meaningful experience and skills that can be used later on in life. The last topic from the chapter that I want to touch on is school-based health services. I have actually done work in a school that offered this. At times it seemed inconvenient when a students was pulled out of class to go down to the dentist, but I also think that it is an amazing resource that they are offering to students and their families. Ultimately I think it keeps more engaged in the classroom because they are less likely to be sick or missing days of school to attend appointments.