Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported on what appears to be the latest example of restorative classroom-discipline strategies going awry. Alongside a photo that features a scowling police officer, the article describes “another day of distraction” that included a girl getting harassed and a boy being offensively defiant with a teacher. Over the past decade, particularly the last few years, the trend in school discipline has been toward restorative justice—which emphasizes authentic dialogue, mutual understanding, and communal responsibility—and away from “zero tolerance,” which critics argue discriminates against nonwhite students and exacerbates the “school-to-prison pipeline.” In many cases, these progressive tactics are effective in improving campus culture and boosting achievement. But in some cases, as the circumstances in L.A. suggest, they come with unintended consequences.

Upon reading that story in the Times , I reflected on military-sponsored schools like Grizzly Youth Academy, which take a completely inverse approach to classroom structure and discipline. Boys and girls are separated. Students ask permission to speak. They all dress the same. Police officers are replaced by sergeants, who control almost every aspect of the schools’ operation. As an English teacher who has taught 1984 for a decade, I cringed when I first observed this seemingly dystopian educational environment—and at first, it may sound like the last place teens with disciplinary problems would want to attend. Yet Grizzly’s students voluntarily enroll. In fact, there’s a waiting list, and after 22 weeks of classes, many of them don’t want to leave.

When I visited Grizzly Youth Academy on Orientation Day, I observed as the new students waited in long lines, wearing identical gray sweats and black baseball caps, carrying their minimal belongings in clear garbage bags. Near the entrance, military personnel silently inspected their bags, while a sergeant in the distance yelled out instructions to a large group of boys, demanding that they answer him with a loud “Yes, sir!” I also heard a sergeant firmly promising an anxious new student: “Do not think for a second that I will let you fail here.”

Grizzly is a charter boarding school run by the National Guard that’s designed for high-school dropouts (or would-be dropouts) and operates using “quasi-military” style of governance. Its authoritarian structure is aimed at fostering the kind of protective and caring environment many of these kids—who often have track records of disciplinary issues and substance abuse—are seeking.

And it seems to work. A three-year study conducted by the nonpartisan think tank MDRC showed significant statistical success in the program; participants are more likely than their control group counterparts to have obtained a high-school diploma, to have earned college credits, and to be working.....

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