At Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, in the past, a student’s profanity-laden outburst might have been grounds for suspension. Now, it’s met by kindness — and maybe an in-school suspension — by teachers who take a deep interest in their students’ home lives.
Lincoln, documented by director James Redford in “Paper Tigers,” which plays at Seattle International Film Festival at the SIFF Cinema Uptown on Thursday and Saturday, May 28 and 30, is an alternative school for kids with a history of truancy, substance abuse and childhood trauma. The school’s struggle with poor academic performance and behavior issues sparked a shift toward abandoning (most) punitive responses. The results? Seventy-five percent fewer fights and three times as many college-bound graduates, according to the film.
To effect this kind of change, “You have to look at behavior through a slightly different lens,” Redford said in a recent interview. “It’s hard not to lose your temper at kids who misbehave.”
[For more of this story, written by Walker Orenstein, go to http://www.seattletimes.com/en...mes-redford-to-siff/]
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