If we are all honost with ourselves we will recognize that the judiciary system in the schools is quite different from that of society. In the schools the teacher primarily composes the judiciary system with the occasional help from administration in extreme circumstances. When the teacher creates most of the rules and is responsible for enforcing them with little support it can be difficult to maintain order and have just, fair punishments.
The biggest dilemma I have experienced is how to handle rule number 4 in of the NEA commitments to the student. Rule number four states that the educator "Shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning or to health and safety." What is the best way to handle a situation in which a particualr student or two is disrupting the class and thus causing an environment that is harmful to the learning of other students? On one hand I feel the student should be punished by being removed from the classroom and sent into the hall, another class, or to ISS in order that the classroom environment will remain beneficial to learning. On the other hand I feel it is too easy to just remove the "problem" and feel that I have the same commitment to the trouble making student as I have to the rest. Sending him out of the classroom and to another one of these locations is not really putting him in the best environment to learn.
Another punishment issue I have come to see in a different light is the use of work as punishment. As a substitute many times I have been told by the teacher that if any student acts up that I should assign them additional work to do. Apparently, Mr. Fuse believes in this tactic. Many times this has been effective in controling behavior, but as an educator I want to be enthusiastic about learning and motivate my students to be enthusiatic about their education. When we result to giving them work as a punishment, I feel it can create a negative attitude towards work and learning in general. Motivating students to learn is difficult enough. Is there alternative punishments we can use that are not counterproductive to one of our most important goals as an educator?
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2 comments:
Dave I like what you said about work being given to students as punishment. After reading it, I realized that if work is being given to students as punishment then students will learn to associate doing schoolwork as a consequence of bad behavior. This is not the message we want to send to our students. Giving students extra work as punishment would actually motivate our students even less to do well academically. As you said, it's hard enough as it is to motivate students.
On top of that, I feel that a teacher must have the backing of the school administration in order for her punishment to be effective. In schools with discipline, you have a firm but fair administration who the kids respect. In schools with no discipline, you have a wishy-washy administration the kids don't respect. I have seen both sides of the coin in my experiences. The administration, moreso than the teachers, are often the bottom line in terms of effective punishment.
I'm not sure that I agree with the idea of administration being the bottom line of punishment. I think that teachers have to take on a responsibility of classroom management. Administration can help with severe situations, but a teacher that is always having to run to the office for help with their students may need to reevaluate their own ways of dealing with discipline.
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