Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School

Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, examines how schools identify and respond to children labeled as "troublemakers." Through portraits of four young children—Zora, Lucas, Sean, and Marcus—she explores their individual characteristics: Zora's individuality, Marcus's willfulness, Sean's struggle with authority, and Lucas's imagination. Shalaby argues that schools often focus on moderating, punishing, and medicating children rather than transforming institutional systems and structures. She demonstrates how noncompliance in young children signals problems with the environments schools require students to adapt to. The book traces how exclusionary practices and excessive punishment begin in early childhood, preceding what has been identified as a school-to-prison pipeline. Through detailed portraits, Shalaby shows how schools engender, exclude, and attempt to erase troublemaking alongside the children accused of it. She contends that typical expectations for young children, despite good intentions, work against the pursuit of a free and just society.