Lets talk a bit about abolition practice in schools & why it is necessary.

I’ll start with an example: Yesterday my son received 2 Friday detentions (ugh I know, right)…

Here is the language a teacher used in the email to me:
“I clearly explained to the whole class that failure to complete the homework would result in sanctions…. I have yet to upload the sanctions &, on reflection, a morning detention may be more appropriate for a 1st offence.”

Failure? Sanctions? First offence? This is all carceral language....you know the language we reserve for those of us that you say “deserve punishment” because of our “crimes”.

What this teacher has demonstrated for us is an example of punitive punishment disguised as “care”

This is a clear example of the education system's application of carceral logic (and language) to solve a simple homework problem

Now I'm not arguing about whether he deserved a detention, or that he was “innocent”…because abolition is not about innocence or guilt...

it’s about what @latoya_aroha calls “loving people beyond who we want them to be”

And we have to remember language is not merely descriptive, it is productive & it is grounded in power, can represent an assault, virtual violence within itself, such is its power…

hooks reminds us that language is a place of struggle, and words are not without meaning.

and as old mate Foucault reminds us, language is about power & produces meaning & is distinctly material in effect,

producing what he calls ‘practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak’…in the example I have provided, the construction of disposable humans (disposable kids, no less)

And we need to understand that punishing kids is a way of reacting to harm, not preventing it. We have internalised this retributive model of "justice" so keenly that we even replicate and implement it in our schools.

Punitive discipline doesn’t let educators educate. When a student does something “wrong”, it’s a teachable moment. By simply punishing a kid in the way we do, we may lose our best chance to support that student to learn and grow

And…Punitive discipline makes school feel like prison, not a community - surely that violates the values and ideals that teachers (and indeed, schools) hold

so to abolition…abolitionist teaching restores humanity for kids . As Bettina Love states: “abolitionist teaching means always putting love at the centre of what we're doing”

That doesn’t sound radical to me, that sounds logical, worthy & exactly what we should in fact be doing

This would allow us to centre love & care & growth & learning in our schools, not punishment and policing. This is how we could build an environment which is based on a deliberate & intentional freeing of ourselves from imprisonment, punishment, exile and isolation.

Abolition allows us to build communities of care that enable us to trust and to build relationships in a way that includes both young people and adults.

We totally should give it a go!