Illogical punishment destroys school life

Illogical punishment destroys school life

Rachel Davies, Sydney

Every time I arrive in Jakarta I notice how severe the traffic
congestion seems to be and, unfortunately, how it only seems to
be getting worse. When I pass comment on this to Indonesian
friends or colleagues the answer almost always is the same "yes,
too many cars and not enough discipline". There seems to be a
kind of resignation that drivers have no discipline.

A friend followed this observation up with the statement that
Indonesians have so many rules in their lives but they never
really learn from them or follow them. He went on to describe
that for him school-life was an endless series of warnings and
crazy punishments that left him hating the idea of rules; for him
they just made no sense.

This is of course very sad and very wrong because rules should
be there to help and guide us but unfortunately I can understand
why he would emerge from his school career in Indonesia with such
a negative perception. The sad reality is that crazy and
illogical rules and punishments have been applied for far too
long and appear to be continuing.

In recent visits with school students and parents I have heard
stories of punishments and attempts at discipline that, quite
frankly, I thought as they say "had died out with the dinosaurs".
For example, I thought that teachers had long ago realized the
complete waste and stupidity of demanding that a "naughty"
student should be punished by having to write out one hundred
times "I must not do this" or "I will not do that" or "I should
not do some other thing."

The only time recently that I have seen a student doing this
senseless thing is the cartoon character Bart Simpson in the
title section of The Simpsons television show and that sequence
is only really there as a joke. But sadly this useless punishment
can be no joke for Indonesian students because they can still
have it applied to them.

It is simply a totally worthless activity that serves
absolutely no useful purpose -- no wonder students can and will
form negative attitudes when exposed to this concept of
disciplinary actions! Useless punishments like this do nothing to
create good concepts of discipline or allow students to
internalize appropriate behavior. But worse still are situations
in which physical violence is resorted to by teachers in the name
of discipline.

Again regrettably recent discussions with parents and students
have revealed examples of ways in which people that should be
providing good examples for students (that is the apparent
teachers and educators here) are in fact providing examples of
erratic and undisciplined behavior that can only be counter-
productive in any efforts to foster more disciplined conduct.

One student described to me recently how her mathematics
teachers will often lose his temper, so much so that the students
are practically in fear of him. In one incident with this ill-
tempered teacher a board eraser was thrown at a talkative
student. The result of this appalling behavior by the teacher was
a cut above the eye for the student.

Luckily for the teacher he was able to get away with this
behavior; it seems as though the student was something of a tough
case and made nothing of the incident but there can be little
doubt that in most instances a teacher of this kind would be
facing serious repercussions not least among which would be an
immediate suspension likely to be followed up with dismissal from
his position in the school.

Other examples exist too of illogical and largely futile
efforts being adopted and implemented amongst weak claims of
installing and instilling discipline. A good example of this is
the exclusion or even just the threat of exclusion from either
certain classes or from school entirely. This is not discipline
in action or punishment serving a purpose; it is inaction and
resignation from the task of providing discipline and it is
totally ineffective as punishment. Punishment should have some
reconstructive element in order to be effective. Exclusion offers
no prospect of reconstruction.

Students being thrown out of their classes or even school
leaves problems unresolved and/ or even added to. Discipline
needs to increase understanding of appropriate behavior and
punishment needs to be just sufficient to reprimand and redirect
attention and action. Both discipline and punishment should
provide lessons and learning for the students but they cannot
possibly work if the student is left to feel ashamed or abused as
a result of being "disciplined" or "punished".

It is acceptable and quite reasonable that a student should
feel a certain degree of discomfort if he or she is guilty of
doing wrong but that discomfort should not really be attached to
putting the person to shame.

Illogical and largely ineffective punishment is far more
likely to arouse further problems when, in fact, it should be
diffusing them. A while ago I was reading a "defense of the poor"
against the claim that they were habitually criminal in their
element. The writer highlighted that this was not at all true
because, in fact, "poor people no more wish to be criminals than
any other people. It is just circumstances that can sometimes
force them down such a road out of desperation."

The point that was ultimately made was that most often
criminal behavior or misdemeanors are far more likely "acquired
habits" that have not been checked and corrected. Effectively,
then, a wrong-doer may repeat offend if not constructively and
intelligently redirected away from the undesirable behavior.

This sentiment should be active in the thoughts of teachers
when considering discipline and their implementation of
punishment. Student misbehavior can be, and most likely is,
misdirected energy and activity that needs to be carefully
redirected by the teacher. With such positive redirection the
misdemeanor may just be a one-off slip-up and will not be allowed
to become a habit. Such re-directive disciplining is both logical
and constructive to the life of the school.

The writer is an education consultant and can be reached at
rachdavies@hotmail.com.

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