Years ago, after vandals stoned the tall glass-block windows, the district covered large sections with brown aluminum. For Jeffries, a third-year teacher, it represents survival. The children groan as their pizza party slips further away. They promise to behave, but the wiggles set in again five minutes later. Sensing another lapse in attention, Jeffries hits a button on a computer.
Kids leap up.
They dance wildly. The music stops. The lesson resumes. But without the constant, pre-emptive discipline, disruption would rule. In her book A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Ruby K. Payne contends that children raised in unstable environments struggle to behave in class.