Hacking School Discipline: 9 Ways to Create a Culture of Empathy and Responsibility Using Restorative Justice

by Nathan Maynard, Brad Weinstein

WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER Eliminate old-school punishments and create a community of responsible, productive learners Are you or your teachers frustrated with carrots and sticks, detention rooms, and suspension--antiquated school discipline practices that simply do not work with the students entering our classrooms today? Our kids have complex needs, and we must empower and embrace them with restorative practices that not only change behaviors but transform students into productive citizens, accountable for their own actions. Replace traditional school discipline with a proven system, founded on restorative justice In a book that should become your new blueprint for school discipline, teachers, presenters, and school leaders Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein demonstrate how to eliminate punishment and build a culture of responsible students and independent learners. In Hack Learning Series Book 22, you learn "Maynard and Weinstein provide practical tips and strategies in the context of real-world examples, guided by the imperatives of changing the behavior and preserving the relationship. An important read for teachers and administrators." -Danny Steele, award-winning principal and co-author of Essential Truths for Principals and Essential Truths for Teachers Before you suspend another student ... read Hacking School Discipline , and build a school environment that promotes responsible learners, who never need to be punished. Then watch learning soar, teachers smile, and your entire community rejoice.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Professional Development, School, Leadership, Audiobook

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2019

Reviews

[Kate Laird · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a high school subject area teacher to read this had very little usable information. The book is composed of tips for handing different situations but seem to come from more of an overarching administrator level discipline. The book depends heavily on restorative circles. Which I just don’t see as feasible in 45-90 min class periods most high schools have. Additionally, the idea that every teacher would spend the first 5 minutes checking in seems like it would be overwhelming to the students. I see merit in this approach but feel like most of these tips would work best in an alternative school setting at ay grade level. Having experience teaching at several alternative programs, I would find better applications in those classrooms.

[Jonathan Stefanopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers some quick, practical, and applicable alternatives to traditional school discipline options like suspension and detention. The suggestions and the emphasis on student relationships and teaching/coaching behaviors is clearly spelled out.

I particularly liked the empathy and mindfulness chapters. I loved the PLAN acronym in the mindfulness chapter.

One reason for not giving this book five stars is that I thought the student examples and scenarios didn’t feel genuine or authentic and doesn’t really consider extreme behaviors or students and how to reduce or eliminate certain behaviors.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and learned a lot of practical ways to improve student behavior!

[Angelica Nagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so informative. I like how it did not give cookie cutter solutions such as behavioral charts and hugs. However instead it gave in depth strategies that help instructors really put communication first and to build trong student/teacher relationships.

[Lynsie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the “logical consequences” of restorative justice and strategies for building empathy and awareness in students. It’s a pretty rudimentary book for experienced administrators or school psychologists, but to its credit all the information is presented in a very user friendly way. I plan to use a couple of the circles exercises with my middle school classrooms to promote empathy and perspective taking.

The book does ignore a lot of behavioral science when it fails to address the function of misbehavior in classrooms for *individual* students. For students whose behavior is maintained by attention, there are a lot of pitfalls in the circles model that puts the spotlight on them for breaking rules (or even in some of the suggested consequences- like a public apology). I would have liked to see a chapter on where FBAs fit into this model and how restorative justice can coexist with behaviorism.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not trauma-informed. I've heard this book endorsed over lots of teacher platforms and so I got it because of that. It wasn't great 😕

[Kasey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really feel like this book was relevant to my teaching needs. Perhaps I just have really good students, but a lot of the techniques in this book seem to be for students with no ability to emotionally regulate, which happens sporadically in my students, but not as systematically as this book seemed to project. I like the idea of letting students repair the harm, but I felt like my issues as a teacher are more along the lines of needing fixes for academic integrity rather than throwing pencils at people, so it didn't really have any practical applications for my classroom. It would be cool if someone would write a book aimed specifically at high schools because, as is so often the case, when books like this try to write for "everyone" they are typically not helpful to anyone.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t believe how fast I read this, especially since I filled it with post-it note annotation. I have so much to say about this book, but will have to come back to the details later. In summary— building relationships with students yields better results. Those relationships have to include BOTH encouragement AND accountability. I was bolstered by the authors insisting on restoration in conjunction with consequences/punishment. Documentation tracked by all invested parties and students being held accountable ACROSS CONTENTS. So much more to say, but later!

[Kaitlin Jundt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book got me excited for the upcoming school year. Some of the discipline "hacks" are ones I already use so it was nice to have some confirmation that I am doing something right. I look forward to trying out some of the other "hacks" and incorporating more restorative justice in my classroom.

[Kari Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best books on restorative practices with practical ideas, modeling, and ways to help teachers better their classrooms for all students while providing a way of educating, encouraging, and building up students who need differing supports. I think this is a wonderful read for all teachers and administrators!

[Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

“For all those students who heard, “You aren’t in trouble. I just need to talk to you.” This is for you.”

This was SUCH a good read. This was not a “self-help” book that aimlessly tried to provide tips. Instead, this book broke down the how, the why, and the what of restorative practices.

“Punishing kids before you figure out what is triggering their behavior solves nothing”.

Grab this if you want to teach. It’s well worth the read.

[Tracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who has been teaching students with social/emotional issues for over 20 years, I didn't find anything new in Hacking School Discipline. I did like how clearly written it is and think it's a great book for new teachers. I was hoping to read something new about restorative justice. I have gotten more out of the online group with the authors and their readers than I did from the book.

[Mike Bright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the format of the 'Hacking' series, particularly the real life examples and concrete ways to apply the concepts. 'Carrot and stick' is what I grew up on, and I am comfortable with that approach. So restorative justice is a new and challenging perspective. I am also very leery of the pure self-esteem and ego-boosting movement that swept education for a long time - not every kid should get a trophy all the time. However, this text seems to be positive and uplifting in appropriate ways.

I would have liked the authors to specify the age group they are targeting - it seems like middle/high school age. My wife teaches 2nd grade, and I'm not convinced they have the self-awareness and verbal skills to implement the techniques in this book fully. Also, there is an implied stick behind much of the text, and I would have liked more explicit acknowledgement of that. I.e. if the restorative justice doesn't fix the problem, you still end up suspending the offender. However, I understand you can't cover everything in under 200 pages.

Through much of the book I was concerned about the amount of time restorative justice will require, time that takes away from instructional time. However, I think it is quite likely that the authors are correct that the time investment will pay off in the long term.

I am a college professor, so much of this doesn't really apply to my classroom. However, I am challenged to spend more time building relationships with my students and plan to use some of the techniques. I mainly read the book in an attempt to provide some support to an organization running elementary/middle schools in Sierra Leone (EduNations, edunations.org ). They have some significant cultural challenges to implementing techniques from this book, but I think it is worth trying.

[Joyce Yattoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read. Picked up some strategies to use in the classroom that can be utilized quickly and without a lot of prep. For the last few years I admit, my focus has been on the 16 academic outcomes and 68 components of the curriculum. 🤪🤪 This book reminded me to get back to the roots and heart of middle school and teaching the “ whole child”. Like it or not, children come to school very different than even 10 years ago. I recommend this book for teachers who have an excellent handle on classroom management, but want students who are more than just compliant as well as those teachers who think removing kids from the classroom for either “learning” or behavior is the answer to building a positive school climate. Would make for a great school wide 📖 study.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I just need to stop buying professional development books. I don't find the information new and I end up skimming through them. I got one or two useful ideas from this book, which I previously saw on their Twitter page. I could have saved the $11 and just continued following them on social media.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely geared more towards secondary, but many of the “hacks” could be adapted and applied to elementary. A good introductory for anyone wanting to become more restorative in addressing student behavior.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I DNF’d this book about halfway through. It’s fine. The information is fine. Nothing in it was revolutionary to me, but for some people it may be great information. Just felt like I was reading a bunch of things I already knew so I didn’t feel inclined to finish it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to take this book and put it into practice to see what impact it would have.

[Madison Burkardt · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was not a GoodRead™️

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not bad for a nonfiction read. I’m going to apply at least one of the hacks in my classroom.

[Katlyn Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty similar to Love & Logic, but a good reminder all the same. Let’s build some empathy!

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short Read, yet very insightful. I wish I would have finished it when I picked it up last year instead of waiting until now.

[Matt C McDonnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice for teachers.

Well written, broken down into easy action steps. I especially liked the stories of the hacks in action. Worth reading.

[Nicole Mayberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An actually helpful teacher book! I am fascinated by restorative justice practices, especially in schools, and this was a great introduction to the science and process of it. Would make a great school wide book study. I think every administrator should be reading this book.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros:

- This is a great intro to restorative justice if you don't know much about it yet. It's broad (but not very deep) and very readable. It's a great place to start.
- Lots of great insights on how to improve classroom culture even if you do already know a thing or two about restorative justice. I found the chapter on instilling a growth mindset and the one about building restorative support to be full of great suggestions.
- In each chapter the authors provide some responses to objections from teachers and students to these approaches. They correctly predicted my thoughts a few times, and their responses were thoughtful and convincing.

Cons:

- If you already know about/use a restorative justice model in your classroom/school, this book probably doesn't have as much to offer you. There are a few ideas in here you might not have considered, but it probably won't be anything too revolutionary.
- A few of the scenarios the book presents seem a bit unrealistic to me (but maybe that's just me).
- I think the book (chapter 4 in particular) would've benefitted from discussion of teachers' implicit biases, which they sort of mention but don't really elaborate on. I'm doing further reading on that topic anyway but I think it would've fit in nicely here.

Overall a good intro to using restorative justice in the classroom.

[readwithjamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

We’ve been reading a couple hacks each week to discuss in a small professional development group and I didn’t read anything that hasn’t already been discussed at some point in my 10+ year educator years. I appreciated the way each hack was used at the end of each chapter, however it felt like a hack being applied in a perfect world and not in our rushed 43 minute classes. I did find that the hacks led to great teacher and administrator discussions though. Without the discussions I would have stopped reading this though.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Dealing more and more with behavior it seems. As I read about 1/3 of the book, I realized that the general education teacher (3rd grade) in the classroom I spent about half of each day in as a paraprofessional assisting a special education student has been employing these strategies/methods. That is what sold me - I have seen the difference it makes in the classroom. The teacher has very intentionally created a community in her classroom using these principles.

[Taylor Hawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book, Hacking School Discipline by Nathan Maynard is an easily consumable book that discusses 9 ways to create a culture of empathy and responsibility using restorative justice. The goal of this book is to reduce repeated negative behaviors, build students' self-regulation and empathy, enhance communication and collaboration, identify the true cause of negative behaviors, and use restorative circles to reflect on behaviors and discuss impactful change. The book is laid out and separated into 9 different hacks, and within these hacks there is an introduction to the problem, the hack to work on the problem, a “what YOU can do tomorrow” section, a section that offers a blueprint for full implementation of the hack, and finally there is a section for the hack in action. The entire book is laid out in this same structure which makes it easy to read, follow along, and understand.

This book was created with a specific audience in mind, and that audience is educators. The author of this book uses a particular style of language, tone, and content according to what he knows about his educator audience. With the educator audience in mind, the problems that are listed in each chapter appear to be claims. For example, in the first hack, the book claims that students are not being heard in the classroom. The author then explains why they are making this claim and offers possible solutions that create a culture of communication to resolve conflict in the classroom. The perspective of the author is to identify issues in the classroom and offer suggestions on how to resolve these issues. Educators have a certain perspective about the issues mentioned in the book; they even have a perspective about the suggestions that the author provides. They have gained this perspective based on their professional experience in the education field. The writer narrates from an educational perspective to his audience of educators. Educators (the author), educating educators on how to educate (using restorative justice). With that I believe it is important to mention that many educators have since endorsed this book as credible and useful through their reviews after reading the book.

I believe that this book has many strengths and weaknesses. Although I have yet to have graduated with my official education degree, I have had many experiences in schools where I have seen some of the claims made in the book take place in the classroom. I do think that many, if not all of the claims made are an issue that take place in schools all over the united states. Not only are the schools of america intended to educate on content matter, there is also a responsibility to educate on becoming a functioning human being outside of the school setting. The morals, ethics and important lessons that students learn in school will continue on with them throughout their lives. That being said, I think that many of the hacks listed in the book are important educational moments for how students should behave in school and outside of school, thus making it an even more valuable lesson. Hack 3 in the book talks about repairing the harm and teaching students how to take direct responsibility for their actions. This is an important lesson in and outside of the classroom. Hack 6 focuses on empowering students to recognize and manage their emotions, and hack 7 focuses on teaching mindfulness and empowering students to build the capacity to listen, understand, and communicate. I think that these are wonderful lessons that can be applied not only to school and interaction with peers but also in real life. On the other hand, I think it is important to mention that while many of these hacks, while on paper sound wonderful, should really take into consideration the reality of the time deficit that teachers face especially in the high school setting. Many high school educators see hundreds of students one time a day for about an hour. Teachers are given standards to abide by and students are given state tests that they must complete. If the students don’t do well on the standardized tests, that reflects directly onto the teacher of that class. Therefore, many teachers don’t take the time out of their one hour a day to teach their students these valuable lessons because they are worried (and rightfully so) about teaching to the standards and making sure students will be successful on their tests at the end of the year.

In conclusion, I think that reading this book offers great insight to the real issues that present themselves in the classroom. This book also offers possible solutions or steps to reduce or resolve these problems when they present themselves. I think that anyone who reads this book will come out with useful information as well as an action plan that they can use in the classroom and in some instances, in real life. I enjoyed the structure of this book very much. The layout allowed me to read the book with ease and I was able to pinpoint the important parts and useful parts of the book that were available to me, easily. I recommend this book for new teachers just entering into the teaching field. I think this book is a valuable resource to become aware of issues before they present themselves and offer steps on how to resolve the issue when they do arise.

[Trinity Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book discussed how the classroom can be more than a sterile controlled environment where the students are downloaded with more information from the teacher. The book does a great job of using real-world examples to bring the visual imagery alive. Such as the example of Asher throwing the pencil in the chapter “Hack 3 Repair the Harm”.
Each chapter ended with a brief summary or Synopsis of the chapter's main points which made it easy to review the concept from each chapter when discussing the book. The book also has a great conclusion that discusses how the main ideas and concepts of emotional intelligence, restorative practices, and respective students' perspectives in our classrooms.
The book did a great job of respecting everyone’s point of view. Especially with the hacks “Circling up” and “Creating A Growth Mindset”. These hacks focus on validating alternative perspectives and understanding that everyone has their own lived experiences that have value in the learning environment.
I would recommend anyone who works in the classroom read this book. The concepts are extremely important to understand in order to foster a community that is built not just on respect but on community and collaboration. The book also covers how to help our students build empathy through mediation and conversation. I really enjoyed the section on Restorative justice. I don’t know how restorative justice will be implemented in my future classroom/district but I hope I can incorporate some of the ideas from this book into my classroom.
The authors start the book with a dedication to “all those students who heard, ‘You aren’t in trouble. I just need to talk to you.’” This sets the tone for the rest of the book. This book is written to give the teacher more tools to connect to the students and to give the classroom back to the students. The first hacks, “Let’s Talk” and “Circle Up”(Hacks 1 & 2), are written as a guide to bring student perspectives back into the classroom. Hacks 3 and 4, “Repair The Harm” and “Throw Out The Rules”, discuss ways we can rethink classroom rules and expectations. We don’t have to have all the right answers when it comes to what a well-behaved classroom looks like. When we give students ownership in the classroom it shares the responsibility with them as well. The next three hacks, “Create a Growth Mindset”, “Teach Mindfulness”, and “Cultivate Empathy”, explain how to build emotional intelligence in the classroom. Especially when the classroom feels to be out of control. The last two hacks, “Build Restorative Support” and “Create A Snapshot”, build on the concept of what to do when the classroom feels out of control. They discuss how discipline can be constructive and restorative through strategies such as mediation, and restorative practices. These hacks also have the main point of “Creating a positive culture where students are treated equitably while also receiving coaching on behaviors requires proper reporting, effective execution of restorative practices, and analyzing behavioral data”.
The elements that worked best for me were Visual Imagery, Point of View, and Synopsis. I chose these elements because I am a visual learner and enjoy reading something that I can picture in my head. The examples that were used helped me visualize the concepts in my future classroom. I chose point of view because the book gave me strategies I can use to bring new perspectives into my classroom such as through class discussions using the “Circle Up” method or by constructing the rules of my classroom collaboratively and constructively to help my students feel ownership in their classrooms. Lastly, I appreciated the synapsis that the author included at the end of each chapter. This made the chapters easy to review. I tend to forget what I read at the beginning of a chapter by the time I finish it so the synapsis helped me review what I had learned while still continuing with my reading.
I did not like how the book discusses the teachers who give out detentions as “hitting the easy button”. Teachers who hand out detentions don’t do this lightly and most struggle with handing out discipline. Teachers care so much about their students and having to write them up or have them leave the class is a difficult thing to have to do. It is not the easy way out it is usually a last resort.
What made me want to read the book was the title. I thought the book would give me tips on how to manage a classroom. I did get great tips on building a classroom community but I’m not sure how much I will be able to realistically apply to my classroom. I believe the author wrote the book to help teachers build better relationships with their students and to create a classroom environment that has a foundation of mutual respect and collaboration instead of control. The book gave me strategies that allow me to build a community that is built collaboratively with the students to respect different perspectives and lived experiences.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literary Elements: Imagery, dialogue, context, rhetoric. At the end of each chapter, the authors gave an example scenario in which the reader could see the hack in action. These scenarios are set up with a particular student or group of students. The authors provide a description of the scenario that creates imagery for the reader. There is also plenty of dialogue and context in these scenarios. Rhetoric is another literary device that was present throughout the book. For example, in hack 3, the authors write: “Why do students want to be excluded from class, or removed completely?” then provide the reader a list of possible reasons. All of these elements were effective to me as I made meaning from the book.
Strengths: I agreed with the perspectives the authors have on discipline and restorative justice. I think they made very important claims and the main ideas for each hack in the book were important. It is necessary for teachers to understand that their students are individuals who are not 100% developed yet and their actions can be impulsive, and that’s no reason to send students out of the classroom. We have to work with them to build a classroom community so they’re more likely to think with empathy about how their actions might affect others.
Weaknesses: The scenarios given in the book feel like they could happen but they have results that don’t seem realistic. Maybe in a perfect world and perfect classrooms, these results could be achievable.
Context: The title stood out to me because it gave me a lot of hope. Classroom management sounds like it will be one of the hardest aspects of teaching middle school or high school, and the title made it sound like there were easy ways to “hack” this problem. It seems like this book is part of a larger series of books called Hack Learning Series, I would be interested to see what topics these books cover. I really liked the layout of the book, if the others are in a similar layout I’d love to check them out.
Summary: This book emphasizes restorative justice practices and the use of empathy in disciplinary situations and gives specific scenarios in which teachers could use these strategies. I felt that the book was a little generic because it seems to be targeted toward “all educators,” which made it less helpful to me as a future high school educator. I feel like many of the hacks that were presented were not realistic for high school teaching. I did agree with the ideas presented in the book however.
Recommendation: I don’t think I would recommend this book to teachers of high school or middle school students. Many of the “hacks” are just common sense, any empathetic teacher would already be doing most of these things. It is also very dismissive of the effort that teachers already put into discipline, and gives no tips about how to put even more effort into it without burning out. The authors never address how much time and effort would go into practicing restorative justice, where will I be able to get the energy and time to do that? I don’t like to give such a negative review, but it was not a very helpful book.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hacking School Discipline offers a compelling look into transforming traditional discipline practices through restorative justice principles, and there is much to appreciate in its pages. The chapter on “throwing out the rules” was particularly engaging, advocating for broader classroom norms rooted in shared expectations rather than rigid regulations. The book’s emphasis on building strong teacher-student relationships, using logical consequences, and fostering both empathy and accountability aligns well with what many educators—myself included—strive to achieve in their classrooms.

As someone fairly knowledgeable about restorative justice and circle practices, I did find some aspects lacking in clarity. The authors often use the terms “circle” and “mediation” interchangeably, which is problematic. These are distinct practices: mediation typically involves a neutral third party facilitating resolution between individuals, while circle practices focus more on collective dialogue and community-building. This conflation may confuse educators who are new to these concepts and are looking for clear, actionable guidance.

From a practical standpoint, I also questioned the feasibility of some recommendations. I teach in a circle format daily, with student desks arranged in a circle and a small opening where I teach. This setup naturally encourages community and discussion and is much more sustainable than the idea of only “circling up” when an issue arises. Furthermore, the suggestion to circle up immediately after a conflict seems unrealistic—both due to time constraints and because students often need space and time to process events before engaging in restorative dialogue.

Another concern was the implication at times that participation in the restorative process could be mandatory (“If you don’t participate, you won’t be able to…”). This runs counter to the foundational principle of voluntary participation in both mediation and restorative practices. Forcing participation can undermine trust and the authenticity of the process.

While Hacking School Discipline contains useful strategies and reaffirming ideas, I found Better Than Carrots and Sticks to be a more thoughtful and comprehensive guide for implementing restorative practices in schools. Nonetheless, Maynard and Weinstein’s work provides some helpful tips and food for thought for educators seeking alternatives to traditional discipline.