Discipline In The Classroom: Past And Present

Discipline in the Classroom: Past and Present

Throughout the history of classroom education, many different types of

disciplinary systems have been applied by teachers and other authority figures

in schools for the sole purpose of controlling student behavior. These systems

include corporal punishment, psychological abuse or neglect, and assertive

discipline. Although two of these three topics are illegal at this time, they

were all widely used in schools across the country a short time ago.

Corporal punishment in general can be defined as the infliction of pain or

confinement as a penalty for an offense committed by a student. During the time

that corporal punishment was used by schools all over the United States and

Canada, parents did not have any say in school discipline. It was completely up

to the school authority figures on the type of punishment and the severity of

the punishment given to the student. The classroom teacher had the most say in

the matter since it was the teacher who usually administered the punishment to

the students. Because of this, some teachers (who especially liked the idea of

physical punishment) took advantage of the minor guidelines set by the principal

to protect students from excessive physical beatings. These guidelines varied

from school to school, but often included length, width and thickness of the

paddle or any other weapon used, the amount of times the student may be struck

by the weapon, and other minor details about other types of physical punishment.

The list of weapons that were acceptable for teachers to use include long:

rubber hoses, leather straps and belts, sticks, rods, straight pins, hard

plastic baseball bats, and arrows. If at the time a teacher did not have

his/her weapon, they would often resort to punching, kicking, slapping and

shaking as ways to "get children's attention". Besides these common manoeuvres

of punishment, other and often more painful techniques were used by teachers.

Children in a class for the learning disabled claimed that their teacher, and

her aide banged their heads into their desks until some students were

unconscious, twisted their arms, and even tried strangulation. Another teacher

shook hot tabasco sauce in the mouths of the troublesome student and smeared it

in their faces. When parents found out about this specific act of cruelty, they

we...

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...hment. This includes writing certain things out

1000 times, to copying a page of a dictionary for homework. This is an all

around unpleasant thing to do, and is probably one of the better systems used.

Throughout all the different discipline plans, each teacher must be positive but

stern while punishing students. Verbal apprehensions in private also may have a

positive effect on misbehaving students.

Of all the different types of discipline studied, Assertive discipline has

the most positive results on students. It has been proven to be better at

stopping students from unacceptable behaviour, as well as not damaging them

emotionally, or physically. Both Physical and emotional abuse have a very

negative effect on students at the time, and the emotional scars created last a

life time.

Bibliography

Canter, Lee and Marlene Canter. Assertive Discipline. Santa Monica, CA:

Lee Canter and Associates, 1992

Hyman, Irwin A. Reading Writing and the Hickory Stick. Toronto: Lexington

Books, 1990.

McManus, Mick. Troublesome Behaviour in the Classroom. New York: Nichols

Publishing, 1989.

"World Book Encyclopedia". Toronto: World Book Inc, 1991 edition. pp.88-

-89