There is odd consensus that you can only use time-out for elementary-age students.
This is silly.
There is nothing wrong with removing a student who is interfering with the rights of others to learn and enjoy school. No one is too old.
If I were teaching a course on classroom management to a group of adult teachers, and one person kept interrupting me, I would ask them to leave. Yes, of course I would give them an opportunity to stop their behavior first.
But if it continues, they’re out.
No one has carte blanche to do whatever they please because they’re over ten years old. Try doing jumping jacks in front of a movie screen, taking a dip in a hotel koi pond, or jeering golfers on the first tee.
Now, it’s important to point out that the two classroom management plans we recommend here at SCM—one for elementary and lower middle school and one for upper middle and high school—are very different.
The former includes time-out and the latter does not. The reason is that once students reach a certain maturity level, there is a better way.
However, you have every right, as well as the responsibility, to remove a student who is continuing to disrupt. To be clear, the reason is not necessarily to improve their behavior in the future, it’s to stop their interuptions for the benefit of the class.
If you’re a high school teacher, this doesn’t have to be officially part of your plan. But it should be an option.
I tell my high school students that if I have to sit them out to protect learning, I’ll do it because I have no other choice. The class comes first.
They’ll lose credit as part of the high school plan, and may be subject to other consequences, but the removal is simply something that must be done for the learning of others.
Of course, I announce this ahead of time, preferably the first day of school. And I’ll repeat it periodically just in case. In almost ten years of teaching older students, I’ve had rare occasion to use it.
But I have, perhaps three or four times.
I don’t call it time-out. I don’t call it anything. I just say: “Zack, you can’t keep disrupting the class. Sit over there and chill out awhile.”
That’s it. Again, it doesn’t have to be an official part of your plan. Nor does it have to be a big deal. I let them sit until they calm down and show some contrition.
So what if they refuse or disrupt while sitting out? Then you have more pressing classroom management issues that need addressing (and that we can tackle in a future article).
The idea of time-out for older students is to bring peace to your classroom so you can teach and your students can learn. That’s it.
So fear not. You’re not breaking some secret an unspoken decree.
When an older student continues to disrupt despite the regular consequences, you don’t have to take it. You don’t have to endure gross disrespect while your class loses out on their right to learn.
Just sit them out. Let them stew awhile.
It’s called accountability.
PS – If this article prompts questions about rules and consequences, check out one of our plans and/or the archive in the sidebar.
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