THE SAFE SEAT

“If you do that ONE MORE TIME, I am going to send you to the safe seat!”

 

I have heard this threat of the dreaded safe seat many times during my year and a half as a pre-service teacher in Columbia Public Schools (CPS). At first, I was excited to hear that CPS uses a safe seat in every classroom. I worked at a preschool that implements Conscious Discipline, which has the component of the safe place. I thought the safe seat was a version of the safe place for elementary schools. My experiences with it during my junior year field experiences caused me to believe that the safe seat is nothing like the safe place. The safe place is, “a learning center in the classroom … used to teach self-regulation and give children a place where they can transform upset into learning” (Bailey, 2013).  What I was observing was a time out chair where students were sent when teachers could not handle them anymore. Students sat there frustrated and angry and struggled to learn the rest of the day. I watched students stomp their feet and pout and cry after being sent to the safe seat. This was not a space for self-regulation so that children could continue learning.

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While the safe seat was not performing this function, I do believe that teachers need to provide a space in the classroom where students can self-regulate their emotions. This caused me to ask the question:

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How do we effectively provide students with a space to calm down in the classroom so that they can stay engaged in their learning to the greatest extent possible?