An effective school must first be a place where students can feel safe, physically and emotionally. It must be a supportive community where students and teachers of all backgrounds can focus on learning. To generate a climate of safety, halls and classrooms must be free of behavior like fighting, bullying, and harassment. That said, a safe environment is not created merely through punishment.

To attain a safe environment where kids are free to reach their potential mentally and academically, schools should focus on preventing misbehavior or misconduct by implementing school-wide positive behavior interventions. These interventions should stress social skills and emotional learning, to teach students conflict resolution and cultural understanding.

There should be methods of positivity. Teachers, parents, and other mentors need to encourage a learning environment in school-age kids by treating schools as “sacred places.” How society values school as a whole culture has everything to do with how students will engage with their own education. When students regard school as an institution with higher respect, they will enter the school with attitudes more conducive to learning. They will be motivated to do things correctly.

            Like what Dr. Larry Lezotte (one of the pioneers of the Effective Schools movement) said, parents should be confident that their children are entering a safe and caring place, free from bullying, harassment and punishment: THE SCHOOL.

By: SALVACION F. DAGDAG | Teacher III | Mariveles National High School (Cabcaben) | Mariveles, Bataan