# How does detention work in schools?



## sunaynaprasad

I've never gotten detention in school  (which is obviously a good thing), so I don't know how it works. I have seen movies with detention scenes, but those have varied from sitting down quietly in a room to kids trying to have fun and throwing paper airplanes to having to do some helpful work. In my book my MC will get detention and I am planning to have her friend cheer her up about it. Can detention vary per far based on who runs it? That's what I did for my last draft, but I don't know if that's believable.


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## Sonata

It is a very long time since I was at school but detention there meant staying for an extra hour after school finished, doing extra work as set by the the teacher in charge of detention that day.  It was not an hour during which a student could do their homework, which still had to be done.

Luckily I, too, never had detention!

HTH


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## sunaynaprasad

What kind of work did they give the students?


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## Deleted member 56686

I never had detention either but I think it was sitting in an assigned classroom for an hour and basically doing nothing. Boy I bet that learned those ruffians :lol:


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## Plasticweld

Dentation when I went to school was a hour or so just sitting there with nothing to do.  It meant you missed the bus walked home or missed sports practice.  One teacher bored out of their  mind while they wasted an hour of their lives.  Must have been punishment for them as well.


You guys who never got dentation....What a bunch of goodie two shoes .... Must be you never have over stepped the bounds of acceptable behavior... how sad


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## Deleted member 56686

Oh I stepped over the bounds once in a while. I just didn't do it in school :lol:


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## Sonata

sunaynaprasad said:


> What kind of work did they give the students?



It depended on what subject the teacher in charge taught.



Plasticweld said:


> Dentation when I went to school was a hour or so just sitting there with nothing to do.  It meant you missed the bus walked home or missed sports practice.  One teacher bored out of their  mind while they wasted an hour of their lives.  Must have been punishment for them as well.



It gave the teachers time to prepare future lessons which they would have had to do in any case, so it was not considered a waste of time for them.



> You guys who never got dentation....What a bunch of goodie two shoes .... Must be you never have over stepped the bounds of acceptable behavior... how sad



Not so much "goodie two shoes" but the school was very strict and most students followed the rules.  Detention was very rarely given.


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## Kevin

> You guys who never got dentation....What a bunch of goodie two shoes .... Must be you never have over stepped the bounds of acceptable behavior... how sad
Click to expand...

 Yes, but look at us now and look at you. We're world leaders, heads of state, corporations, multinationals, masters of the world, leaders of industry, billionaires, b'zillionaires; the greatest of intellects, have received honors, honorary honors, statues dedicated in our honor, foreign dignitaries, are visionaries, have a following of millions, billions... while you... just look at you, and all because you got sent to detention. Shame, shame...


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## Plasticweld

Kevin said:


> Yes, but look at us now and look at you. We're world leaders, heads of state, corporations, multinationals, masters of the world, leaders of industry, billionaires, b'zillionaires; the greatest of intellects, have received honors, honorary honors, statues dedicated in our honor, foreign dignitaries, are visionaries, have a following of millions, billions... while you... just look at you, and all because you got sent to detention. Shame, shame...




I would be glad to compare my resume and accomplishments with any of you nerdy do-gooders... Not only that Kevin, I bet I can even beat you arm wrestling ...Top that... Us alpha males have certain advantages as well. :topsy_turvy:


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## Sonata

Plasticweld said:


> I would be glad to compare my resume and accomplishments with any of you nerdy do-gooders... Not only that Kevin, I bet I can even beat you arm wrestling ...Top that... Us alpha males have certain advantages as well. :topsy_turvy:



Ooooh - an alpha male 




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## aj47

http://www.katyisd.org/Documents/Di...an.pdf#search=KISD Discipline Management Plan is the discipline management plan for my school district.  I've had students in three districts and the plans are pretty similar--this is Texas, USA.


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## Kevin

Mr... can't remember his name. It was something east-Slavic and he had yellow curls, Gene Wilder; burly guy, like a wrestler; no sense of humor. He ran the detention, which was just another classroom full of separate desks with chairs. There was no talking and it was boring as hell. The next step was to be dragged by the arm to the Dean's office, which usually meant suspension. For one semester I was a T.A., and yes, I got sent there once, too. It seemed pointless, or rather... part of the point: don't get caught.


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## Deleted member 56686

It wasn't this guy, was it?


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## Kevin

^^^  zactly!  'Cept  add some muscles... and no smile.


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## Fred

Are you looking for ideas for detention in a school in the USA? UK? Canada? I know how it used to happen in North Wales in the 1970s, and can tell you how it happens in England today, but none of it is like The Breakfast Club!


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## walker

We had a place called "The Tank", which was a windowless room where absolutely no speaking was allowed. You could get thrown in there for an hour, or a day, or a week (school hours only, of course ), depending on the severity of your infraction.

Later, when I was a teacher in a large public school, the in-school detention was identical, except that nobody called it the tank. It was considered an undesirable duty to oversee in-school detention, which I drew, of course. 

I guess I've seen detention from both sides!


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## Jenwales

Every school is different, I used to have class detentions where we just sat in a room and did work. I had one where I sat there and the teachers were chatting, then let us go. It might have changed now


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## Phil Istine

It's a very long time since I went to school (except as an adult learner which is different).
I only recall receiving detention once , along with a few other kids.  We had made a poor job of our homework.  Receiving detention for this was surprising as I thought it was for misbehaviour.
It didn't seem like punishment really.  After he explained what was expected of us we all did the homework again.  This took about twenty minutes.  Then we were allowed out to play football until the pre-designated time had elapsed.
To this day I remember what the homework was - biology.  It was a diagram of the human female reproductive system.  The football seemed far more important though at that age.


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