Are classroom accommodations always a good thing? What’s restorative justice and how is it implemented in school?
Schools have long provided special accommodations to help struggling students succeed. But in Bad Therapy, Abigail Shrier argues that schools now bend over backward to accommodate nearly every student request, a practice that undermines independence and academic performance.
Discover examples of classroom accommodations that Shrier believes are harming students.
Excessive Accommodations in School
Shrier discusses three examples of classroom accommodations that she considers damaging:
1) Academic accommodations: Teachers liberally make modifications to academic standards, even for students without formal diagnoses, by accepting late work, giving extra time on tests, and allowing students to leave class if anxious. While some students face genuine trauma, schools now label common challenges like having divorced parents as traumatic. This leads educators to treat typical students as psychologically damaged and unable to meet basic expectations. Shrier contends that this mindset particularly harms disadvantaged students who need high standards and accountability to succeed.
(Shortform note: Teachers and parents often approve of accommodations like extra time for tests because they can lead to improvements in the student’s academic performance. However, experts warn that these quick fixes can become a crutch—for example, students may rely on extra time even for tests they could complete within normal limits simply to reduce anxiety. This has led some experts to propose several ways schools can reduce the overuse of accommodations. These include training teachers to understand when accommodations are truly needed versus when other interventions might be more appropriate and implementing academic support programs to build core skills like reading fluency and writing.)
2) Student aides: Schools increasingly assign aides to follow and help individual students throughout the day. While these helpers originally supported students with severe disabilities, schools now assign them to students for minor behavioral issues. Having a constantly monitoring shadow can make students more dependent on adults and deprive them of opportunities to learn to deal with situations independently.
(Shortform note: To avoid creating dependent students, educational psychologists recommend aides use fade-out support strategies. This means gradually reducing the amount of help given until the student can complete tasks independently. They suggest aides start with the minimum level of assistance needed for success before systematically decreasing that support over time. For example, you might begin by demonstrating a task, then switch to verbal reminders, and finally move to subtle gestures based on the student’s progress.)
3) Restorative justice: Many schools have replaced traditional discipline with restorative justice, where students who misbehave participate in group discussions about their feelings rather than face punishment. Shrier argues that this approach fails to prevent violence and actually hurts victims by forcing them to confront their attackers. By treating all misbehavior as a mental health issue requiring therapy instead of discipline, schools have lost the ability to maintain order. According to the teachers Shrier interviewed, restorative justice has led to more behavioral problems and school violence.
| Can Restorative Justice Work? Researchers argue that restorative justice programs can work effectively if school staff receive intensive training, consistent leadership, and ongoing coaching. They can’t be implemented after a few workshops and left to run on their own. When schools rush to adopt restorative justice without proper preparation, they struggle to maintain discipline and safety. Schools have found success by taking a more measured approach: For example, in a Philadelphia high school once considered to be one of the most dangerous in the state, administrators first trained a core group of committed teachers before gradually expanding the program. This led to significant drops in repeat infractions and cut suspensions nearly in half over four years. So, while poorly implemented restorative justice programs can indeed lead to discipline problems, schools that carefully develop these programs may find better results than those from traditional punitive approaches. |
