Learning is social and emotional; our classrooms should be too

“The prevalence of no-tolerance policies in majority-black schools reflects the belief we can punish black children to success. But students need a strong sense of belonging to flourish. Kicking kids out counters that. Not only is harsh discipline ineffective, it’s physically damaging. Brain science tells us that not properly attending to emotional development can hurt the very architecture of the brain. Advances in brain science have not quite dislodged the mindset that black and brown students need to be punished or that white middle-class character traits need to be installed to spur academic achievement. Black kids don’t need grit. They need schools to stop being racist.”