Should after-school detention be banned?

After-school detention simultaneously disciplines and keeps troubled kids occupied

Question: Should after-school detention be banned?
Position1 of 2›: No, after-school detention should not be banned
Argument: After-school detention simultaneously disciplines and keeps troubled kids occupied

School detention is intended first and foremost as a disciplinary strategy, but it also helps teachers understand their students better and keep troubled kids under a watchful eye, preventing them from misusing their time.

The argument

Detention is not a simple blanket punishment used to admonish troubled kids. It is at once a reprimand for their wrongdoings and a prevention tactic for further misbehavior. Teachers have limited tools at hand to control their students' behavior, and detention is one of the few that can take place within the school setting and also be productive towards furthering a student’s education. Detention can come in many forms, and so long as a teacher is using appropriate and effective methods of disciplining a student, it should be retained as a form of educational reprimand. The additional benefit of after-school detention is that it keeps that subset of children who are likely to get up to trouble outside of school as well in a setting where they can have a watchful eye on them. This time is not meant to be cruel but disciplinary, and it offers an opportunity for students to bond with teachers and make up for work they may have missed while misbehaving.

Premises

[P1]After-school detention is both a reprimand for misbehaviour and a prevention tactic against further trouble, and it is one of the few disciplinary tools that can be productive toward a student's education. [P2] It also keeps trouble-prone children supervised outside school hours, offering a chance to bond with teachers and make up work missed while misbehaving. [C] Therefore, because after-school detention simultaneously disciplines and occupies troubled kids, it should not be banned.

Counter-arguments

The teacher should not be a disciplinarian. If the concern is keeping the student occupied during all hours of the day to prevent them from causing too much trouble, they should contact the parents to take over that disciplinarian role.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] That detention both reprimands and deters is asserted; whether it reduces later misbehaviour is an empirical question the premise does not address, and "productive toward a student's education" depends entirely on what the time is actually used for. [Rejecting P2] Supervision outside school hours is a claim about custody rather than discipline, and it presumes in advance which children will cause trouble — while the counter's objection, that keeping a child occupied is not the school's role, goes to whether this is a reason to retain the practice at all.