The Grammar of School Discipline: A Review of the Four Rs

This review critiques Hannah Carson Baggett and Carey E. Andrzejewski’s The Grammar of School Discipline. To examine school discipline and to specifically highlight anti-Black racism in public schools in the state of Alabama, the authors detailed and criticized the three Rs of school discipline: removal from classrooms, resistance by students and staff, and reform of disciplinary practices. They added one more R to the list: repair for both schools and self. The authors used literature from varied fields (e.g., education, educational psychology, sociology, criminal justice, developmental psychology), numeric data on school disciplinary practices, and portraits of students and school leaders to support their arguments. This review will summarize the authors’ arguments, provide analysis and critique of the text, and detail what it contributes to the field.