Isolation rooms

Damaged children need people, not punishment. Ever heard of 'Isolation Rooms' in schools? It's not from the Victorian ages I assure you. They have them in many schools today. We should question their usefulness. You may have seen them on the reality TV educational shows. This is how some operate: Children sit in booths where they can’t see to the left of them or to the right of them and they’re staring at a white wall and in some of these rooms there are 15, 20 children who have been there for days, not just for a couple of hours or half an hour to calm down. But they have been put in there for some more than three days to stare at the walls. And the idea that that kind of deprivation would result in a positive change in behaviour is just ludicrous and of course those rooms are full of the most vulnerable, the most complicated, the most damaged children. They’re not full of children who are perfectly in control of their behaviour, perfectly able to make decisions and do so rationally. They are full of the children who are really struggling to get hold of how to do that good behaviour. Let us make sure as parents, teachers, schools and society, we take care of the most needy and not just 'isolate' or continually punish them.