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By Anna Szperka (6th)

We’re all most likely familiar with the form of punishment called “Silent Lunch.” If you’re lucky enough not to be familiar with it, allow me to explain.

When students are being loud, noisy, or rambunctious, teachers need a way to quiet them down. One of the less effective methods is called Silent Lunch. Silent Lunch is basically what it sounds like: a lunch period that is completely silent, with no talking allowed from the students.

The reason why Silent Lunch is extremely flawed, and even harmful to children, is because everyone is punished—even the innocent students who were doing what they were supposed to do.

In most cases, it’s usually a very small group of individuals who are misbehaving, typically six or seven students at most. Because of this, teachers decide that the best way to deal with the issue is to simply erase it entirely, forbidding any and all students from communicating with one another.

This form of punishment, given to an entire group, is called group punishment.

Now, you may be wondering: how is Silent Lunch so harmful? Well, you might be surprised to learn that there are more issues than meet the eye. First and foremost, it weakens students' communication skills. If you can’t talk, you can’t learn to communicate and work well with others. If students are used to not talking, they may not communicate when it matters—for example, in a group project. What many teachers don’t realize is that some negative effects extend to all types of group punishment.

Let’s say someone is doing exactly what they’re supposed to, following all the rules. If another student isn’t following the rules, the innocent student is still punished for something they had no part in. This is a huge problem because not only is it unfair, but it makes students feel like it’s pointless to follow the rules if there’s punishment anyway. It makes students feel bitter (myself included) and less willing to try.

So, if Silent Lunch is so harmful, why do teachers use it? The simple answer: it’s easy. It’s much easier for teachers to punish everyone instead of finding the root of the problem. Finding one person is much more challenging than making everyone silent. If you think about it from their point of view, it’s hard to find a single individual who might go unpunished. But if you punish everyone... now that’s a solution! You’re guaranteed to get them—and everyone else.

So what can we do to prevent Silent Lunch? The answer is simpler in concept than in reality. To prevent Silent Lunch, we would need a system that punishes individuals instead of the whole group. My proposed solution is to have one table dedicated to individuals who are being too loud. Those students could be moved to that table for the lunch period. This would be more effective than punishing everyone for one person’s misbehavior.

This solution might be challenging, but with enough effort, it could be possible.

Anyways, that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed my article—stay tuned for more content like this!